Winter 


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jelanalose 


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The MARTIN ROWAN CHAFFIN 
Collection of Public School 
Text-Books 


PRESENTED TO 


Trinity College Library 


By his grandchildren in honor of M. 
R. Chaffin, who taught public school 
in Davie and Yadkin counties for a 
number of years beginning in 1850, and 
in honor of his father, William Owen 
Chaffin, who first taught a North 
Carolina public school in 1843, in 
Yadkin county. 


For the esbecial use of the Defartment of 
Education and of the Durham county and 
city teachers. 


DATE J oF Ana na/ 


UNVEILING OF LEE MONUMENT 
‘At Richmond, Va., Friday, May 29, 1890. 


Vrs le 


OF 


Gen. Ropert E. Lee, 


FOR CHILDREN, 


a 


= 


In Easy Worps. 


ILLUSTRATED. 


MRS. MARY L. WILLIAMSON. 


SOO Ome 


B. F. JOHNSON PUBLISHING CO. 
RICHMOND, VA. 


Copyright, 1895, 
BY 
Mrs. MARY L. WILLIAMSON. 


08-3—L. I. 


PREBACE: 


In preparing the “‘Life of Lee for Children,”’ for use 
in the Public Schools, I beg leave to place before teachers 
good reasons for employing it asa supplementary reader. 

First, I urge the need of interesting our children in 
history at an early age. From observation | find that the 
minds of children who study history early expand more 
rapidly than those who are restricted to the limits of 
stories in readers. While teaching pupils to read, why 
not fix in their minds the names and deeds of our great 
men, thereby laying the foundation of historical knowl- 
edge and instilling true patriotism into their youthful 
souls ? 

Secondly, In looking over the lives of our American 
heroes we find not one which presents such a picture of 
moral grandeur as that of Lee. Place this picture before 
the little ones and you cannot fail to make them look 
upward to noble ideals. 

This little book is intended as auxiliary to third 
readers. | have used the diacritical marks of Webster, 
also his syllabication. In compiling this work I referred 
chicihytomGen Fitzhugh, Wee's, “Life of Lee, and 
Rev. J. William Jones’ ‘‘Personal Reminiscences of 
IR. Jee Ikea? 


Mary L. WILLIAMSON. 
NEW MARKET, VA., 


Bb SLES 


Digitized by the Internet Archive 
in 2017 with funding from 
Duke University Libraries 


https://archive.org/details/roberteleesouthe01 whit 


The Sword of Robert Lee. 


FatHeR RYAN 


Forth from its scabbard, pure and bright, 
Flashed the sword of Lee! 

Far in the front of the deadly fight, 

High o’er the brave, in the cause of right, 

Its stainless sheen, like a beacon light, 
Led us to victory. 


Out of its scabbard, where full long 
It slumbered peacefully— 
Roused from its rest by the battle-song, 
Shielding the feeble, smiting the strong, 
Guarding the right, and avenging the wrong— 
Gleamed the sword of Lee! 


Forth from its scabbard, high in air, 
Beneath Virginia’s sky, 

And they who saw it gleaming there, 

And knew who bore it, knelt to swear 

That where that sword led they would dare 
To follow and to die. 


Out of its scabbard! Never hand 
Waved sword from stain as free, 

Nor purer sword led braver band, 

Nor braver bled for a brighter land, 

Nor brighter land had a cause as grand, 
Nor cause a chief like Lee! 


Forth from its scabbard! Allin vain! 
Forth flashed the sword of Lee! 
Tis shrouded now in its sheath again, 
It sleeps the sleep of our noble slain, 
Defeated, yet without a stain, 
Proudly and peacefully. 


The Life of Gen. Robert E. Lee. 


CHAPTER I. 
Birth and Youth. 


Rosert Epwarp Ler was born at Stratford, 
Westmoreland county, Virginia, on the 19th 
of January, 1807. 

His father, General Henry Lee, had been 
a great chief in Washington’s army. They 
sometimes call him ‘Light-Horse Harry 
Lee.” While with Washington, he was ever _ 
in front of the foe, and his troopers were 
what they always should be—the eyes and 
ears of the army. 

After the war he was Governor of Vir- 
ginia, and then a member of Congress. It 
was he who said in a speech made before 
Congress after the death of Washington, that 
he was ‘First in war, first in peace, and 


10 THE LIFE OF GEN. ROBERT #. LHE. 


first in the hearts of his countrymen.” He 
also said, ‘‘ Virginia is my country; her will 
I obey, however sad the fate to which it may 
subject me.” 

The long line of Lees may be traced back 
to Launcelot Lee, of Loudon, in France, who 
went with Wiliam the Conqueror upon his 
expedition to England; and when Harold 
had been slain upon the bloody field of Hast- 
ings, Launcelot was given by William the 
Conqueror an estate in Hssex. From that 
time the name of Lee is ever an honorable 
one in the history of England. 

In the time of the first Charles, Richard 
Lee came to the New World and found a 
home in Virginia. He was a man of good 
stature, sound sense, and kind heart. From 
him the noble stock of Virginia Lees began. 
He was the great-great-grandfather of Robert, 
who was much like him in many ways. 

Robert’s mother was Anne Hill Carter, 
who came from one of the best families of 
Virginia. She was a good and noble woman, 


THE LIFE OF GEN. ROBERT #H. LHE. - 11 


who lived only to train her children in the 
right way. 

Stratford, the house in which Robert was 
born, is a fine old mansion, built in the shape 
of the letter H, and stands not far from the 


STRATFORD. 


banks of the Potomac River and near the 
birthplace of Washington. Upon the roof 
were summer houses, where the band played, 
while the young folks walked in the grounds 
below, and enjoyed the cool air from the river 
and the sweet music of the band. 


12 THE LIFE OF GEN. ROBERT EL. LEE. 


He had two brothers and two sisters. His 
brothers were named Charles Carter and Sid- 
ney Smith, and his sisters Anne and Mildred. 

When Robert was but four years of age 
his father moved to Alexandria, a city not 
very far from the Stratford House, where he 
could send his boys to better schools. But 
he was not able to stay with them and bring 
them up to manhood. Shortly after he had 
moved to Alexandria, he was hurt in Balti- 
more by a mob of bad men, and he was 
never well again. 

When Robert was six years old, his father 
went to the West Indies for his health. 
While there he wrote kind letters to his son, 
Charles Carter Lee, and spoke with much love 
of all. Once he said, ‘‘Tell me of Anne. Has 
she grown tall? Robert was always good.” 
He wished to know, also, if his sons rode and 
shot well, saying that a Virginian’s sons should 
be taught to ride, shoot, and tell the truth. 

When he had been there five years, and 
only grew worse, he made up his mind to 


THE LIFE OF GEN. ROBERT E. LEE. 13 


return home. But he grew so ill that he 
was put ashore on Cumberland Island at the 
home of a friend. He soon gave up all hope 
of life. At times his pain was so great that 
he would drive his servants and every one 
else out of the room. At length an old 
woman, who had been Mrs. Greene’s best 
maid, was sent to nurse him. The first 
thing General Lee did when she came into 
the room was to hurl his boot. at her head. 
Without a word, she picked up the boot and 
threw it back at him. A smile passed over 
the old chief’s face as he saw how brave she 
was, and from that time to the day of his 
death none but Mom Sarah 
could wait on him. ‘Two 
months after the sick soldier 
landed he was dead. His 
body was laid to rest amid 
the cedars and flowers of 
the South, and it has never 
been moved to Virginia. 


14 THE LIFE OF GEN. ROBERT E. LHE. 


At this time Robert was only eleven years 
old. If he wasa good boy, it was his mother 
who kept him so, for he never knew a father’s 
care. His mother once said to a friend, 
‘‘How can I spare Robert! He is both a 
son and a daughter to me.” 

About that time the girls and iter boys 
were away from home, and she had no one 
but Robert to care for her. He took the 
keys and ‘kept house” for her when she 
was sick, and also saw to all of her outdoor 
work. He would run home from school to 
ride out with her, so that she might enjoy 
the fresh air and sunshine. When she 
would complain of the cold or draughts, he 
would pull out a great jackknife and stuff 
the cracks with paper, for the coach was an 
old one. 

So he grew up by her side, a good and 
noble boy. At first he went to school to a 
Mr. Leary, who was ever his firm friend. 
Then he went to the school of Mr. Benjamin 


THE LIFH OF GEN. ROBERT #. LEE. 15 


H. Hallowell, who always spoke of him as a 
fine young man. 

Robert was fond of hunting, and would 
sometimes follow the hounds all day. In 
this way he gained that great strength which 
was never known to fail him in after life. 

The old home, in Alexandria, where his 
mother had lived, was always a sacred place 
to him. Years after, one of his friends saw 
him looking sadly over the fence of the gar- 
den where he used to play. ‘‘I am looking,” 
he said, ‘‘to see if the old snow-ball trees are 
still here. I should be sorry to miss them.” 

When he was eighteen years old, he went 
to West Pomt to learn to be a soldier. He 
was there four years, and in that time never 
got a bad mark or demerit. His clothes 
always looked neat and clean, and his gun 
bright. In short, he kept the rules of the 
school and studied so well that he came out 
second in his class. 

When he came home from West Point, he 
ound his mother’s old coachman, Nat, very 


16 THE LIFE OF GEN. ROBERT E. LEE. 


ill. He took him at once 
to the South and nursed 
him with great care. But 
the spring-time saw the 
good old slave laid in the 
grave by the hand of his 
kind young master. 


Not very long after, his 


UNCLE NAT. 


dear mother grew quite ill. 
He sat by her bedside day and night, and 
gave her all her food and medicine with his 
own hand. But his great care and love could 
not save her. He was soon bereft of her to 
whom he used to say he ‘“‘owed everything.” 
Some one has said, ‘‘Much has been writ- 
ten of what the world owes to ‘Mary, the 
mother of Washington’; but it owes scarcely 
less to ‘Anne, the mother of Lee.’ ” 


Gén/’-er-al, the head of an army. 

Ex’-pe-di’-tion, a voyage ; a trip, with an aim in 
view. 

Stat’-are, height. 

Draughts (drafts), currents of air. 


THE LIFE OF GEN. ROBERT H. LEE. a 


Tell what you remember about— 
Robert’s father. 5 
Robert’s mother. 

The situation of his home. 


Robert’s kindness to his mother. 
His life at West Point. 


ye 


\ ip f yy if 


cose HINT 


RT a 


<ul he 


18 THE LIFE OF GEN. ROBERT E. LEH. 


CHAPTER II. 


A Young Engineer. 


In 1829, when twenty-two years old, Robert 
entered the Engineer Corps of the United 
States, and thus became Lieutenant Lee. 

It is the duty of these 
engineers in time of peace, 
to plan forts, to change 
the course of rivers which 
make sand-banks at wrong 
places, and to do other 
work of the same kind. 
Lieutenant Lee was sent 


ROBERT E.LEE, at once to Hampton Roads, 
in Varoima, to buildi simone 
works, not dreaming that in after years it 
would be his fate to try to pull them down. 
Lieutenant Lee was married on the 30th 
of June, 1831, to Mary Custis, who was the 
creat-granddaughter of Mrs. Washington, 


THE LIFE OF GEN. ROBERT E. LEE. 19 


and the only child of George Parke Custis, 
the adopted son of Washington. She lived 
at a fine old place on the Virginia bank of 
the Potomac River, called Arlington. At 
this time Lieutenant Lee was very handsome 
in face and tall and erect in figure. 

Two years after his marriage he was sent 
to the city of Washington. This change 
was pleasant to him, for he was then near 
the home of his wite. 

In 1837 he was sent to St. Louis to find 
means to keep the great Mississippi River 
in its own bed. It was a hard task, but he 
at last forced the mighty river into the 
channel he wished. While at work, some 
men, who did not know what great things 
he could do, tried to drive his workmen. 
away, and even 
brought up can- 
non. Lee did 
not mind them, 
but went on 
with his work,. 


20 THE LIFE OF GEN. ROBERT #. LHE. 


and soon had the great river to flow in the 
right place. 

From St. Louis he was sent to New York 
to plan and build new forts to protect that 
great city. He was now a captain of engi- 
neers, and was soon to try the horrors of 


wal. 
In 1846, a war broke out between the 
United States and Mexico. ‘Engineers are 


of as much use to an army as sails to ships.” 
They have to make roads and bridges, to 
plant big guns and draw maps, and guide 
the men when going to fight. 

At first, Captain Lee was sent to join Gene- 
ral Wool, in the north of Mexico. Not long 
before the battle of Buena Vista (Bwa-na- 
vees-ta), General Wool sent Lee to see where 
Santa Anna, the general of the Mexicans, 
had placed his army. News had come that 
he was not far off. 

Lee rode, with only one man to guide 
him, into the mountains. After he had been 
riding for some hours, he saw on a hill-side 


MEXICO. 


THE LIFE OF GHN. ROBERT #. LHE. 21 


the smoke of fires, and objects which he 
thought were tents. He went on, in a very 
cautious way, till he had gotten quite near. 
Then, he saw the white objects were only 
flocks of sheep and herds of cattle and mules 
on the way to market. He found out from 
the men driving them that Santa Anna had 
not crossed the mountains, and then went 
back to his friends, who thought that they 
would never see him again. 

Though he had ridden forty miles that 
night, he rested but three hours before 
taking a troop of horsemen and going far 
into the mountains to find out just where 
Santa Anna had gone with his army. 

Soon after this brave deed, Captain Lee 
was sent to join General Scott in the south 
of Mexico. He was put to work at Vera 
Cruz (Va-ra-kroos), a large town on the coast. 
There was a high wall, with strong forts 
around: Vera Cruz. (General Scott wished 
to take this city from the Mexicans. So 
Captain Lee had to plant big guns and 


22 THE LIFE OF GEN. ROBERT #. LEE. 


build forts; and to do this he worked night 
and day. 

As they were short of men, he was told to 
take some sailors from a man-of-war to help 
with the work. These men began to com- 
plain loudly. ‘They did not enlist to dig 
dirt, and they did not want to work under 
a landlubber anyhow.” Their captain said 
to Lee, “The boys don’t want any dirt to 
hide behind; they want to get on the fop, 
where they can have a fair fight.” Lee 
quietly showed his orders, and told the old 
“salt”? he meant to carry them out, and 
pushed on the work ’mid curses both loud 
and deep. ; 

Just as the work was done, the Mexicans 
began to fire their guns at that point, and 
these brave sons of the sea were glad enough 
to hide behind the “bank of dirt.” Not 
long after, their captain met Captain Lee and 
said, ‘‘I suppose the dirt did save some of 
my boys. But I knew that we would have 
no use for dirt-banks on shipboard, that, 


THE LIFE OF GEN. ROBERT E. LEE. 23 


there what we want is a clear deck and an 
open sea. And the fact is, Captain, I don’t 
like this land fighting anyway; 7 ’aint clean.” 

Vera Cruz was taken by General Scott in 
two weeks’ time. Then the men went on 
over hills and vales, till they came to the 
strong fort on Cerro Gordo. Captain Lee 
then found a way to lead the Americans to 
the rear of the Mexicans, who soon broke 
and fled. 

While this battle was raging, Captain Lee 
heard the cries of a little girl, and found by 
the side of a hut a Mexican drummer boy. 
His arm had been badly hurt and a large 
Mexican, who had been shot, had fallen on 
him. Captain Lee stopped, had the big 
Mexican thrown off of the boy, and the little 
fellow moved to a place of safety. 

His little sister stood by. Her large 
black eyes were streaming with tears, her 
hands were crossed upon her breast, and her 
hair in one long plait reached to her waist. 
Her feet and arms were bare. She was very 


Ae THE LIFH OF GHN. ROBERT H. LEE. 


thankful to Captain Lee for saving her 
brother. 

In a letter to his son from this place, he 
says: “I thought of you, my dear Custis, 


CAPTAIN LEE RESCUING DRUMMER BOY. 


on the 18th in the battle, and wondered, 
when the musket balls and grape were 
whistling over my head, where I could put 
you, if with me, to be safe. I was truly 


THE LIFE OF GEN. ROBERT £. LEE. 95 


thankful you were at school, I hope, learning 
to be good and wise. You have no idea 
what a horrible sight a battle-field is.”’ 

From Cerro Gordo, they went on fighting 
battles until they came to the large and rich 
city of Mexico. 

On this march, Captain Lee was always 
at the front to guide the men. Once, when 
one part of General Scott’s army had lost its 
way, General Scott sent seven engineers to 
guide it into the right road. They had to 
cross a huge, rough bed of lava and rock. 
Six of them went back to camp, saying that 
they could not get across; but, Captain Lee 
pressed on in the dark, alone and on foot, 
and brought the men out in safety. Gen- 
eral Scott once said that it was the greatest 
feat done by any one man during the war. 

There were many battles fought, but at 
last the city of Mexico was taken by Gen- 
-eral Scott. In after years, this great man 
was heard to say that his great success in 
Mexico was largely due to the skill and 


26 THE LIFE OF GEN. ROBERT EH. LEE. 


valor of Robert E. Lee, and that he was the 
best soldier that he ever saw in the field. 

In the midst of all this fighting, his boys 
were ever in his thoughts. This isa part of 
what he wrote to his son Custis on Christmas- 
Eve, 1846: 

“T hope good Santa Claus will fill my 
Rob’s stocking to-night; that Mildred’s, 
Agnes’s, and Anna’s may break down with 
good things. Ido not know what he may 
have for you and Mary, but if he leaves you 
one-half of what I wish, you will want for 
nothing. I think if I had one of you on 
each side of me, riding on ponies, I would 
be quite happy.” 

Not long after, he wrote to his boys thus: 

“The ponies here cost from ten to fifty 
dollars.. I have three horses, but Creole is 
my pet. She is a golden dun color, and 
takes me over all the ditches I have yet 
met with.” 

When the war was at last ended, in 1848, 
Captain Lee went home for a short rest, after 


THE LIFE OF GEN. ROBERT EH. LEE. 27 


which he was sent to West Point, as the 
Superintendent of the Academy from whose 
walls he had gone forth twenty-three years 
before. His duty was to watch over the 
studies and training of the boys who would 
one day be officers in the army. 


Corps (kore), a body of troops. 
Of’ficer, one who has charge of soldiers. 
Lava, melted matter flowing from a volcano. 
Féat, a great deed. 
Lieuten’ant (lutén’ant), an officer next below a 
captain. 
Tell me— 
When Robert became Lieutenant Lee. 
Whom he married. 
Where he was sent in 1837. 
What war broke out in 1846. 
About a great feat performed by Captain 
Ieee! 
Where he was sent in 1848. 


28 THE LIFE OF GEN. ROBERT EH. LEE. 


CHAPTER III. 
A Cavalry Officer. 


Arter being three years at West Point, 
Captain Lee was sent to Texas as Lieuten- 
ant-Colonel (kurnel) of the Second Regiment 
of Cavalry. Cavalrymen are soldiers who 
fight on horseback and who carry sabers, 
and pistols, and short guns, called carbines. 

Colonel Lee did not wish to leave the 
Engineer Corps, as he had become very fond 
of the work, and had won a high rank in it; 
but, as he had been promoted to a higher 
place, he thought it best to take it. When 
at West Point, he had been a fine horseman. 
He was still fond of horses and liked to see 
them fed and well taken care of. Though 
now forty-six years of age, he still had a firm 
seat in the saddle and rode well. His regi- 
ment was sent to the new State of Texas, 


THE LIFE OF GEN. ROBERT EH. LHE. 29 


where his duty was to watch the Indians 
and keep them from killing the whites. 
I have no doubt that Colonel Lee enjoyed 


LEE CHASING THE INDIANS. 


riding over the vast plains of Texas, but life 
in the forts was not very pleasant to such a 
man as Lee. The forts were in the midst of 
dreary plains, and there were only a few men 


30 THE LIFE OF GEN. ROBERT #. LHE. 


at each post. The scouting parties were led 
by heutenants, and the higher officers would 
remain at the forts to see that all went right. 
Such a lonely life did not suit our hero, but 
he made the best of it. 

Near his first post, Camp Cooper, was 
an Indian Reserve, where the Indians 
would come to be fed by the Govern- 
ment. When it was cold and food was 
scarce, they would come in; but when 
the grass grew in the spring and the game 
was fat, they would go off and become wild 
and savage enough to kill those who had 
been kind to them. 

Catumseh, a Comanche chief, was at the 
Reserve when Lee was at Camp Cooper. 
Lee thought it would be better to visit him 
and tell him that he would trust him as a 
friend so long as he behaved; but if he did 
not behave he would take him for a foe. 
Catumseh was not much pleased with Lee’s 
speech, but gave an ugly grunt and said 
that, as he had sa wives, he was a “big 


THE LIFH OF GEN. ROBERT E#. LEE. 31 


Indian.” Lee had better “get more wives 
before he talked.” This visit did not do 
much good. Catumseh was no doubt taking 
the measure of Lee’s scalp, while Lee was 
displeased with the sly and filthy savage. 

The Comanche Indians were then the 
fiercest tribe in that region. They ate raw 
meat, slept on the ground, and were great 
thieves and murderers. They were fine horse- 
men, and moved swiftly from place to place 
on their ponies. 3 

In June, 1856, Lee was sent with four 
companies of his regiment on an expedition 
against the Comanches, but they could not 
be found. The wily savages had fled to 
their desert retreats, where foot of pale face 
had never trod. 

From Camp Cooper he writes to Mrs. Lee: 

“My Fourth-of-July was spent after a 
march of thirty miles in one of the branches 
of the Brazos, under my blanket, which 
rested on four sticks driven in the ground, 
as a sun-Shade. The sun was fiery hot, the 


32 THE LIFE OF GEN. ROBERT #H. LEE. 


air like a furnace, and the water salt; still 
my love for my country was as great, my 
faith in her future as true, as they would 
have been under better circumstances.”’ 

The change of weather in Texas is some- 
times very great. 

In another letter, ne tells his wife about a 
cold wind or norther. ‘I came here in a 
cold norther, and though I pitched my tent 
in the most sheltered place I could find, I 
found this morning, when getting up, my 
bucket of water, which was close by my bed, 
so hard frozen that I had to break the ice 
before I could pour the water into the basin.” 

While Colonel Lee rode with his troopers 
from fort to fort, a dreadful disease broke out 
among them. Many died, but Colonel Lee 
did not catch the disease, though he lived 
among his men and ran great risks. In 
these sad times, his thoughts were ever with 
his dear ones at home. 

In a letter dated Camp Cooper, June 9, 


THE LIFE OF GHN. ROBERT EH. LEE. 33 


1857, he tells about the sickness of the 
troopers: 

“The great heat has made much sickness 
among the men. The children, too, have 
suffered. A bright little boy died from it a 
few days since. He was the only child, and 
his parents were much grieved at his loss 
poe Hor whe first time in my life, | 
_ read the service of our Church over the grave 
to a large number of soldiers.” <A few days 
after, he again read the service over a little 
boy who had died with the disease. 

In a long letter from Fort Brown, Texas, 
December, 1856, he says: 

“T thought of you and wished to be with — 
you.”” He wrote again: ‘Though absent, 
my heart will be in the midst of you; I can 
do nothing but love and pray for you all. 
My daily walks are alone, up and down the 
banks of the river, and my chief pleasure 
comes from my own thoughts, and from the 
sight of the flowers and animals I meet with 
here.”’ ; 


34 THE LIFE OF GEN. ROBERT E. LEE. 


In the midst of this wild, lonely life he 
was ever true to his faith in Christ, which 
he had professed after the Mexican war. 

There was at Arlington a large yellow cat, 
called Tom Tita. All the family were fond 
of him, and Colonel 
Lee among the rest. 
This led him to 
write home about 


the cats he saw in 


TOM TITA. 


his travels. He 
told once of a cat called by his mistress Jim 
Nooks. He was a great pet, but at last died 
from eating too much. He had coffee and 
cream for breakfast, pound cake for lunch, 
turtle and oysters for dinner, buttered toast 
and Mexican rats, taken raw, for supper. 
He was very handsome, but his ‘beauty 
could not save him.” The kindness of his 
mistress was his ruin. 

Again he told his little girl about a cat 
which was dressed up. He had two holes’ 
bored in each ear, and in each wore bows of 


THE LIFE OF GEN. ROBERT EH. LHE. 35 


pink and blue ribbon. He was snow-white 
and wore a gold chain on his neck. His 
tail and feet were tipped with black, and his 
eyes of green were truly cat-like. 

In the summer of 1857, he was made 
Colonel (kur’nel) of his regiment. The next 
fall his father-in-law, Mr. Custis, died, and 
Colonel Lee went home for a short time. 
Mr. Custis left Arlington and the rest of his 
land to Mrs. Lee, and he also willed that at 
the end of five years all of his slaves should 
be set free. He had chosen Colonel Lee to 
see that his will was carried out. 

Colonel Lee stayed as long as he could 
with his lonely wife, and then went back to 
his post in Texas. It must have been far 
from easy for him to go back to the wild, 
hard life on the plains. There were then 
no railroads. The United States mail was 
carried on mules, by armed soldiers who 
- rode in a gallop from place to place. Often 
they were slain by the Indians, who would 
scalp them and leave their bodies to be 


36 THE LIFE OF GHN. ROBERT E. LEE. 


found by the troopers as they chased the 
savages back to their retreats. 

Two years more were spent in Texas, 
when, in October, 1859, we find him again 
at home, and taking part in a great tragedy. 

A man, named John Brown, made a plan 
to set free the negro slaves who were then in 
the South, and to kill all the whites. This 
plot did not succeed, and John Brown and 
his men took refuge in the Round House at 
Harper’s Ferry. Colonel Lee, who was then 
at home on a furlough, was ordered to take a 
band of soldiers and capture these bold men. 
He went at once to Harper’s Ferry and 
quickly took them prisoners. They were 
then tried and hung for treason. 

Just here, I must-tell you that the slaves 
were blacks, or negroes, who had first been 
brought to this country from Africa, in 1619, 
by the Dutch, and sold to the Virginia 
planters. At first, the planters bought them 
out of pity, as they were badly treated by 
the Dutch. But after a time it was found 


COL. R. E. LEE AT JOHN BROWN’S FORT, HARPER’S FERRY. 


38 THH LIFE OF GHW. ROBERT EF. LHE. 


that the negroes worked well in the corn and 
tobacco fields, and that they made money for 
their masters. 

Many men at the North were sea-going 
men, and they soon found out that, by sail- 
ing over the ocean to Africa and catching 
the blacks, they could sell them at a great 
profit to themselves. This they did, and 
men both at the North and South bought 
them, though, even then, there were some 
people at the South who thought it wrong to 
buy and sell human beings. 

In the State of Georgia it was for a time 
against the law to hold negro slaves. 

After a while, it was found that the 
climate at the North was too cold for the 
negro to thrive. It did not pay the men at 
the North to keep them, and so they were 
sold to the Southern planters. 

In the South, the climate was hot, like 
that of their native Africa, so they did well 
in that sunny land. 

In 1808, it was made unlawful to bring 


THH LIFE OF GEN. ROBERT E£. CHE. 39 


any more slaves from Africa to the United 
States. The people at the South were glad 
that the trade in slaves was stopped, but 
the Northern traders were of course sorry 
that they could make no more money in that: 
way. 

When the negroes were first brought from 
Africa, they were heathen savages; but, after 
a few years, they learned the speech and 
customs of the whites; and, more than all, 
the worship of the true God. In thinking 
of this, we have to admit that slavery must 
have been permitted by the Lord in order to 
bring a heathen people out of darkness into 
the light of the Gospel. 

There were now four millions of negroes 
in the South. There was great love between 
the blacks and their masters, as we have 
seen when John Brown tried to get the 
former to rise up and slay the whites. For 
years, there had been a feeling in the North 
that it was wrong to own slaves, and some 


40 THE LIFE OF GEN. ROBERT E. LEE. 


of the people began to hate the South and 
to try to crush it. 

The South felt that they owned the slaves 
under the law, or Constitution of the United 
States, and that they ought to be let alone. 
They also claimed that the slaves, as aclass, 
were better treated than any other working 
people in the world. They, moreover, said 
that the Southern States had a perfect right 
to go out of the Union, if they wished, and 
set up-a government for themselves. This 
_ the North denied; and thus they quarreled | 
about the rights of States, and slavery, and 
other things, until they began to think of 
war. 

In a short time after the John Brown Raid, 
Colonel Lee was back at his post in Texas, 
but he was much troubled at the state of his 
dear country. He loved the Union and had 
lived nearly all his life in its service; but he 
knew that Virginia was in the right, and 
that he could not fight against his native 
State. 


THE LIFE OF GEN. ROBERT EH. LEE. 41 


So, when the war came, he left the United 
States Army to fight for Virginia and the 
South. 

He was offered the chief command of the 
United States Army if he would remain in the 
“Union” service. He knew that if he went 
with the South he would lose his rank, and also 
his lovely home—Arlington, but ‘‘none of 
these things moved him’; his only wish was to 
know, that he might walk the path of duty.” 

He said to Mr. Blair, who came to offer 
him the command of the army: ‘If I 
owned the four millions of slaves in the 
South, I would give them all up to save the 
Union, but how can I draw my sword upon 
Virginia, my native State?’”’ So, when Mr. 
Lincoln called for troops to send against the 
South, Lee turned his back upon ‘ wealth, 
rank, and all that a great power could give 
him, and offered his stainless sword to his 
native State.’ His great soul was wrurg 
with grief, but he obeyed the call of duty. 

He went at once to Richmond, and was 


42 THE LIFE OF GEN. ROBERT #. LEE. 


made Major-General of the Virginia troops. 
His three sons also joined the Confederate 
army. 

General Lee was now fifty-four years old. 
He had been thirty-two years in the service 
of the United States. 

The great ‘‘Civil War” now began. The 
eleven Southern States which had left the 
“Union” were now called ‘“‘The Confederate 
States of America’; Mr. Jefferson Davis 
was made President of them, and Richmond 
in Virginia was made the capital city. 


Sa’bers, swords with broad blades. _ 

Furlough (fir/ls), a leave of absence. 

Trea’son (tré’zon), the act of being false to 
one’s country. 

Promo’ted, raised to a higher rank. 

Rég’iment, a body of troops under a colonel. 

Tragedy, an action in which the life of a per- 
son is taken. 


eo =n) ros O 1 SL ra 
: Piece © 


VIRGINIA STATE CAPITOL, FORMERLY OCCUPIED BY THE CONFEDERATE CONGRESS. 


44 THE LIFE OF GHN. ROBERT #. LEE. 


What do you know about— 
Cavalrymen? 
Colonel Lee’s life in Texas? 
Catumseh ? 
The Comanche Indians ? 
The negroes? 
John Brown? 
The wish of Lee? 
What he deemed his duty? 
Mhe creat Civil War aon 


THE LIFE OF GEN. ROBERT E. LEH. 45 


CHAPTER IV. 
A Confederate General. 


In this little book I cannot tell all that 
happened during the Civil War, but only as 
much as will relate to our hero, General Lee. 

There were now two governments—one at 
the North; the other at the South. Mr. 
Abraham Lincoln was President of the North, 
or Kederals, while Mr. Jefferson Davis was 
the President of the South, or Confederates. 
The first thought of the North was to defend 
Washington, their capital city; while the 
South was just as busy taking care of Rich- 
mond, and getting arms and troops ready 
for war. 

In this war, brother fought against brother, 
and friend against friend. It was a time of 
great trouble all over the land. At the 
North, one hundred thousand men were 
enlisted in three days. At the South, the 


46 THE LIFE OF GEN. ROBERT EH. LEE. 


feeling was more intense. Men rushed to 
arms from all parts of the country. 

You must notice that from the first of the 
war, the South was much poorer in the num- 
ber of men and arms than the North. There 
were at the North eighteen millions of whites; 
while at the South, there were only six millions. 
Through all the South, there could be found 
only fifteen thousand new rifles and about 
one hundred thousand old muskets. 

The Federals wore a uniform of blue, while 
the Confederates were clad in gray; hence 
they were sometimes called ‘‘the blue” and 
“the gray.” 

The first blood which flowed in this war 
was shed in Baltimore. The Sixth Massa- 
chusetts Regiment, as 1t was passing through 
the city on its way south, was attacked by a 
band of men who loved the South and could 
not bear to see them marching on to fight 
their brethren. In the fierce street fight 
which followed, several men were killed. 
This happened on April the 19th, 1861. 


GEN, R. E. LEE IN WEST VIRGINIA. 


48 THE LIFH OF GHN. ROBERT H. LHH. 


The first gun of the war was fired at half- 
past four o’clock April 12, 1861, at Fort 
Sumter, in South Carolina. This fort was 
taken by the Confederates after a fight of 
thirty-four hours, in which no one was hurt 
on either side. 

During the first months of the war, Gen- 
eral Lee was kept in Richmond to send Vir- 
ginia.men, who came to fight for the South, 
to the places where they were most needed. 
All around Richmond were camps, where 
men were trained for war. The largest of 
these camps was called ‘“‘Camp Lee,’ after 
our hero. But in July, 1861, Lee was sent 
to Western Virginia, and was, for the first 
time, commander of troops in the field. 

Just then, there were heavy rains and a 
ereat deal of sickness among the men of his 
small army, so that he was not able to attack 
the enemy, as he had planned. 

After some time, it was thought best to 
give up Western Virginia, and General Lee 
went back to Richmond, where he stayed 


THE LIFE OF GEN. ROBERT E. LEE. 49 


only a short time. In November, 1861, he 
was sent south to build a line of forts along 
the coasts of South Carolina and Georgia. 
In four months’ time he did much to show 
his skill as an engineer. 

But a large Northern army, under General 
McClellan, was at the gates of Richmond, and 
Lee was sent for to take charge of all the 
armies of the South. Very soon, a battle 
was fought at Seven Pines, May 31st; which 
stopped General McClellan’s ‘On to Rich- 
mond.” In that battle General Johnston, 
the commanding general, was badly wounded, 
and General Lee was put in his place. _ Lee 
was swift to plan and as swift to act. His 
task was hard. The hosts of the North 
were at the gates of Richmond. The folks 
on the house-tops could see their camp-fires 
and hear the roar of their cannon. Lee at 
once began to make earth-works, and to 
place his men for battle. Every day, now, a 
fine-looking man, clad in a neat gray uniform, 
might be seen riding along the line. 


50 THE LIFE OF GEN. ROBERT £#. LHE. 


He wished to know what was going on in 
the camp of the foe, and now the right man 
came forward. His name was J. KH. B. 
Stuart, best known as Jeb Stuart. He led 
his brave troopers quite around the army of 
the North and found out all that Lee wished 
to know. He was ever after this, until his 
death, the ‘‘eyes and ears” of Lee. 

“Stonewall”? Jackson now came from the 
Valley with his brave men, and Lee at once 
began the ‘‘Seven Days’ Battle.” Stuart was 
“the eyes and ears” of Lee, and Jackson 
was his “right arm,” as you will learn be- 
fore you get through with this little book. 

For seven days the battle went on, and at 
last the Army of the Potomac, under General 
McClellan, was forced back to the James 
river, and Richmond was saved from the foe 
by the skill of Lee and the valor of his men. 

Lee now marched north towards Wash- 
ington City, and in Aitgust, 1862, met the 
army of General Pope and fought the Second 
Battle of Manassas. Lee had made a bold 


THE LIFE OF GHN. ROBERT E. LEE. 51 


plan to put the army of Pope to flight. He 
sent Stonewall Jackson fifty-six miles around 
to the rear of Pope, while he (Lee) kept him 
in check in front. 

Jackson’s men marched so fast that they 
were called ‘‘foot cavalry.”” They ate apples 
and green corn as they marched along, for 
they had no time to stop. Only one man 
among them knew where they were going. 
Little cared they, for Stonewall Jackson led 
the way. 7 

On the evening of the second day, Jackson, 
with twenty thousand men, was between 
Pope and Washington city. Lee was in 
front of Pope with the rest of the army. 

General Jackson fell upon Manassas Junc- 
tion and took three hundred prisoners and 
many car-loads of food and clothes. After 
the men had eaten what food they wanted, 
they burned the rest and moved away. 

Jackson found a good position from which 
to fight, and when Pope’s men came up was. 
ready for them. They fought all day, and 


52 THE LIFE OF GEN. ROBERT #. LER. 


when the powder and shot gave out the 
Southern men fought with stones. 

All this time Lee, with most of the men, 
was coming round to help Jackson. How 
eagerly Jackson looked for help! He had 
only twenty thousand men against three 
times that many. At last Lee came up, 
and the battle was won (August 30th). 
Many brave men were killed on both sides, 
but Lee was the victor. In three months’ 
time he had driven the foe from Richmond, 
and was now in front of Washington with 
his army. | 

He now sent General Jackson to Harper’s — 
Ferry, where he took as prisoners twelve 
thousand men of the North, September 
15th. Jackson then hurried back to Lee, 
who had crossed the Potomac and gone over 
into Maryland, on September 5, 1862. 

At Sharpsburg sometimes called Antietam 
(Ante’tam), he again met the fresh army of 
. McClellan and fought one of the most bloody 
battles of the war. Lee had only half as 


LAST MEETING OF LEE AND JACKSON. 


54 THE LIFE OF GEN. ROBERT E. LEH. 


many men as McClellan, but when, after the 
battle, Lee thought it best to return to Vir- 
ginia, McClellan did not follow him. Lee 
led his army back to Virginia without the 
loss of a gun or a wagon, and they rested 
near Winchester, Virginia. 

General Lee, in his tent near Winchester, 
heard of the death of his daughter Annie. 
She had been his dearest child, and his grief 
at her death was great; but he wrote thus 
to Mrs. Lee: 

“But God in this, as in all things, has 
mingled merey with the blow by selecting 
the one best prepared to go. May you join 
me in saying ‘His will be done!’” 

It was now McClellan’s turn to attack 
Lee, but he was slow to move—so slow that 
Mr. Lincoln sent him word ‘‘to cross the 
Potomac and give battle to the foe, and 
drive him south.” But still he did not 
move, and lee, who was also wanting to 
move, sent Jeb Stuart over into Maryland to 
find out what McClellan was doing. That 


THH LIFE OF GEN. ROBERT EH. LEE. 55 


gallant man again went around the whole 
Northern army, and came back safe to Lee, 
having found out what Lee wished to know. 

The Northern army now came back to 
Virginia and Lee moved to Fredericksburg, 
a town on the Rappahannock river. 

Burnside was now put at the head of the 
Northern army in the place of General 
McClellan, whom Mr. Lincoln accused of 
being too slow. 

Lee placed his men on the heights above 
the river, on the south side, while Burnside’s 
hosts were on Stafford Heights and the plains 
below. 

At daylight on December 13, 1862, the 
battle began, and was fought bravely by both 
sides. But Burnside’s men had little chance, 
since Lee’s men from above poured the shot 
and sheli so fast that they could not move 
forward. 

The noise of this battle was terrible, as 
there were three hundred cannon roaring at 
once. 


56 THE LIFE OF GEN. ROBERT #H. LHE. 


Cooke, a great writer, tells us that as 
Burnside’s guns were fired directly at the 
town, the houses were soon on fire and a 
dense cloud of smoke hung over its roofs 
and steeples. Soon the red flames leaped 
up high above the smoke and the people 
were driven from their homes. Hundreds of 
women and children were seen wandering 
along the frozen roads, not knowing where 
to go. 

General Lee stood upon a zidge which is 
now called ‘‘Lee’s Hill,” and watched this 
painful scene. For a long time he stood 
silent, and then, in his deep, grave voice, 
said these words, which were the most bitter 
that he was ever known to utter: ‘These 
people delight to destroy the weak, and those 
who can make no defence; it just suits 
them.” | 

When the day was done, Lee was again 
victor. 

In less than st months Lee had fought 
four great battles—all victorious to his arms, 


LEE AT FREDERICKSBURG 


58 THK LIFE OF GEN. ROBERT EH. LHE. 


except that of Sharpsburg, which was neither 
a victory nor defeat. The Southern army 
was now full of hope and courage. At the 
battle of Fredericksburg, Lee had only sixty 
thousand men, while Burnside’s army num- 
bered over one hundred thousand. In this 
battle Lee lost five thousand men, while 
twelve thousand of Burnside’s men lay stark 
and cold upon the bloody field. 

Lee grieved over the loss of his brave men, 
and for the good people of Fredericksburg 
who had lost their homes by fire during the 
fight. He now waited day after day for 
Burnside to attack, but in vain. At length 
Lee went into winter quarters in a tent at 
the edge of an old pine field near Fredericks- 
burg, and began to get ready for fight when 
the spring came. It was at this time that 
among a number of fowls given to Lee, was 
a fine hen which began the egg business be- 
fore her head came off, and Bryan, Lee’s ser- 
vant, saved her for the egg which he found 
each day in the General’s tent. Lee would 


THH LIFE OF GHN. ROBERT #H. LHE. 59 


leave the door of the tent open for the hen 
to go in and out. She roosted and rode in 
the wagon, and was an eye-witness of the 


GEN. LEE’S HEN. 


battle of Chancellorsville. She was also at 
‘the battle of Gettysburg; but when orders 
were given to fall back, the hen could not 
be found. At last, they saw her perched on 
top of the wagon, ready to go back to her 
native State. 

In 1864, when food began to get scarce 


60 THE LIFE OF GEN. ROBERT #. LEE. 


and Bryan was in sore need for something © 
nice for guests, he killed the good old 
hen unknown to her master. At dinner, 
General Lee thought it a very fine fowl, not 
dreaming that Bryan had killed his pet. 

It was now time for Lee to carry out the 
will of old Mr. Custis and set free his slaves. 
Many of them had been carried off by the 
Northern men, but now he wrote out the 
deed and set them free by law. He wrote 
thus of them to Mrs. Lee: 

“They are all entitled to their freedom, 
and I wish them to have it. Those that 
have been carried away I hope are free and 
happy.” 

He had set free his own slaves years before. 

Lee had proved so great a leader that the 
people of the South began to look to him 
with great love and hope. 

During these battles, of which I have: told 
you, one-half of the Southern men were in 
rags, and many were without shoes. Yet 
shoeless, hatless, ragged and starving, they 


THE LIFE OF GEN. ROBERT EL. LEE. 61 


followed Lee and fought his battles. Their 
pet name for him was .‘Marse Robert.’’ 
They knew that their great chief cared for 
them, and would not send them into danger 
if he could help it; and it was no fault of 
his if their food was scant and poor. They 
learned to love and trust him. ‘‘Marse 


?) 


Robert says so,” was their battle-cry. 


Président, the head of a free people. 
Mér’cy, kindness. 

Gallant, brave ; daring in fight. 
Vic’tor, one who wins. 

Posi’tion, place. 


Tell about— 
The two governments. 
The first blood shed. 
The first gun fired. 
sa Camipplecens 
Where General Lee was first sent. 
The ‘‘On to Richmond.” 
Jeb Stuart. “Stonewall” Jackson. 
The Second Battle of Manassas. 
Sharpsburg. Fredericksburg. 
The will of Mr. Custis. 
The soldiers’ love for Lee. 


62 THE LIFE OF GEN. ROBERT EH. LEE. 


CHAPTER V. 


A Confederate General. 
( Continued.) 


_ Wnuen the spring of 1863 came, the two 
armies were still in sight of each other near 
Fredericksburg. Anew man, General Hooker, 
sometimes called ‘Fighting Joe,’’ had been 
put at the head of the army of the North. 
Take note that he was the fourth general 
that President Lincoln had sent forth within 
a year to conquer Lee. ; 

Lee watched his new foe, and when he 
had found out his plans was ready for him. . 
He fell back to a place called Chancellors- 
ville, and there, in the midst of a dense 
forest, the fight took place (May 2, 3). 

While the battle was going on, Lee sent 
Jackson to the rear to cut Hooker off from 
a ford in the river. Jackson’s men moved 
through the forest so swiftly and with so 


THE LIFE OF GEN. ROBERT #E. LEE. 63 


little noise that they fell upon Hooker’s men 
with a loud yell before he knew they were 
near. They rushed out like a thunder-bolt 
and swept down upon the line like a flash 
of lightning. The foe did not wait, but 
turned and fled. 

It was now nearly dark, and, as Jackson 
rode forward to view the way, he was shot 
by his own men, who, in the dim light, 
thought that he and his aids were a squad 
of Northern cavalry. He was shot in three 
places—in his right hand, his left forearm, 
and again in the same limb near the shoulder. 
He was placed in a litter and taken from the 
field. All care was taken of this great and 
good man, but he died the next Sunday. His 
last words were: 

“Order A. P. Hill to prepare for action. 
Pass the infantry to the front. Tell Major 
Hawkes’’—he stopped and then said, as if 
the fight was over, ‘‘Let us pass over the 
river and rest under the trees.”’ 


64 THH LIFH OF GHN. ROBERT #. LEE. 


Thus passed away the great Stonewall 
Jackson, the ‘right arm of Lee.” 

For two days after Jackson was wounded, 
the fight went on and raged with great fury. 
General Hooker was struck by a piece of 
wood split off by a cannon ball, and for a 
time was thought dead. 

Lee made bold plans and his brave men 
carried them out. Stuart, who had taken 
Stonewall Jackson’s command, led his men 
to battle, singing ‘Old Joe Hooker, won’t 
you come out of the wilderness.” 

At last the battle of Chancellorsville was 
won and Hooker was forced back to his old 
camp at Fredericksburg. 

Chancellorsville was Lee’s greatest battle, 
but its glory was clouded by Jackson’s death. 
General Lee wrote to his wife, May 11, 1863: 

‘You will see we have to mourn the loss 
of the good and great Jackson. * * I 
know not how to replace him, but God’s 
will be done.”’ ° 

In this battle Lee had only fifty-three 


GEN. STONEWALL JACKSON. 


66 THE LIFE OF GEN. ROBERT EE. LHE. 


thousand men, one-third as many men as 
Hooker. 

In June, 18638, Lee again crossed the Po- 
tomac and met an army under General 
Meade at Gettysburg, in Pennsylvania. 

Lee had two reasons for this move. One 
was to get food for his men and horses; and 
the other to draw the Northern army away 
from its strong forts around Washington 
city. He gave strict orders to his men not 
to steal and rob. This is a part of his order: 

“The commanding general thinks that no 
ereater disgrace could befall the army, and 
through it our whole people, than to com- 
mit outrages on the innocent and defence- 
less. -* * * It must be remembered 
that we make war only upon armed men.” 

This order, with its noble Christ-like spirit, 
will remain the ‘undying glory of Lee”’; for 
all his property had been taken by the 
Federals. His wife and daughters were 
homeless, yet he did not fail to return good 
for evil. 


THE LIFE OF GEN. ROBERT #E. LEE. 67 


When Lee started into Maryland, he sent 
Jeb Stuart on ahead to guard the right flank 
of his army. By some mishap, he crossed 
the Potomac too far to the east, and soon 
found that the whole Federal army was_be- 
tween him and General Lee. By hard fight- 
ing and riding he at last joined Lee at Get- 
tysburg, but not until after the fight had 
begun. Lee was thus without his ‘eyes and 
ears,’ as we have called General Stuart, and 
could not tell just where the foe was. Neither 
Lee nor Meade had planned to fight at Get- 
tysburg, but they fell upon each other pretty 
much like two men groping in the dark. 

For the first two days (July 1, 2) Lee’s 
men drove back the enemy. On the third 
day, at 1 o’clock P. M., Lee began to fight 
with one hundred and fifty big guns. For 
two hours the air was alive with shells. 
Then, out of the woods swept the Confederate 
battle line, over a mile long, under General 
Pickett. A thrill of wonder ran along the 
Federal lines as that grand column of fifteen 


68 THH LIFE OF GEN. ROBERT H. LEZ. 


thousand men marched, with ragged clothes, — 
but bright guns and red battle-flags flying, 
up the slope of Cemetery Ridge. Down upon 
them came shot and shell from guns on the 
heights above and round them. 

The lne was broken, but on they went. 
They planted their Confederate flags on the 
breast-work; they fought hand to hand and 
killed men at the cannon with the bayonet; 
but down from the hill rushed tens of thou- 
sands of Federals, and many who were not 
killed were taken prisoners. Few got back 
to tell the story. That night the stars 
looked down upon a field of dead and dying 
men and also upon a sad general. Lee’s 
orders had not been obeyed, and, for the first 
time, he had been foiled. 

Lee afterwards said to a friend, ‘Had I 
had Stonewall Jackson at Gettysburg, I would 
have won a great victory.” | 

He had made a bold plan to attack early 
in the day; but it was not done, and thus 
Meade got time to bring up his troops. 


THE LIFH OF GEN. ROBERT E. LEE. 69 


Meade did not attack Lee, who rested that 
night upon the same ground as the night 
before. 

Lee now had but little powder and shot. 
On the next day, the 4th of July, he started 
his long trains of wounded and_ prisoners 
towards Virginia; and, at the same time, 
buried his dead. That night, in a storm, 
the army began its homeward march, and 
reached the Potomac river to find it too high 
to cross. Calm and brave, Lee sent his 
wounded over in boats and got ready for 
Meade. But Meade was in no mood to 
attack Lee and came up slowly. 

While waiting for the river to fall, Lee 
heard of the capture of his son Gen. W. H. F. 
Lee. 3 

On the 13th, Lee’s men began to cross. 
the river, and by the next night they were 
again safe in Virginia. 

The men lost at Gettysburg were never 
replaced, for the South had sent forth all her 
fighting men and had no more to give. 


70 THE LIFE OF GHN. ROBERT LE. LEE. 


The rest of the year passed without any 
great battle. Lee’s chief concern was to 
get food and clothes for his men and to watch 
Meade, who would not give battle. 

About this time the city of Richmond pre- 
sented to Lee a house. This he kindly but 
firmly refused to take, and begged that what 
means the city had to spare might be given 
to the families of his poor soldiers. 

Late in November, General Meade moved 
towards Lee, who had built strong forts at Mine 
Run. But Meade found the forts too strong 
for attack and withdrew during the night. 

The next year a new man was sent against 
Lee—tUlysses 8S. Grant. Lee had now only 
sixty-two thousand men to meet Grant, who 
had one hundred and twenty-five thousand men, 
and a wagon train that reached sixty-five 
miles. 

With this large army, Grant crossed the 
Rapidan river, and marched on to give Lee 
battle. Lee did not wait for Grant, but 
went forward and met his hosts in a place 


THE LIFE OF GEN. ROBERT E. LEE. 71 


called the Wilderness, which was a vast 
forest full of underbrush, and with only nar- 
row roads here and there. It was a bad 
place in which to fight a battle, for no man — 
could see but a few yards around him. Can- 
non and horsemen were of no use, because 
they could not move through the tangled 
bushes. 

Grant did not know that Lee’s men were 
so near. But when they rushed into these 
wilds and boldly began the fight he had to 
give battle. For two days, May 5th and 
6th, 1864, two hundred thousand men in 
blue and gray fought breast to breast in the 
thickets. Men fell and died unseen, their 
bodies lost in the bushes and their death- 
groans drowned in the roar of battle. 

In the midst of these horrors, the woods 
caught on fire and many of the wounded 
were burnt alive. Lee, however, pressed for- 
ward, and when night closed had taken a 
portion of the Federal breast-works. 

During the fight of the 6th, General Lee 


72 THH LIFE OF GEN. ROBERT E. LEE. 


placed himself at the head of some men from 
Texas to lead the charge. ‘Hurrah tor 
Texas!” he cried, and ordered the charge. 
But the soldiers, anxious for their dear gen- 
eral, shouted, ‘‘Lee torear!”” <A gray-haired 
soldier seized his bridle, saying, ‘‘General 
Lee, if youdo not go back, we will not go 
forward!’’ So General Lee reined back his 
horse and the brave Texans swept on to vic- 
tory and death. 

On the morning of the 7th, Grant made 
no motion to attack Lee, but that night 
marched towards Spotsylvania Court+House. 
Lee at once found out his plans and began 
a race to reach there first. When the tront 
of Grant’s army reached the Court-House the 
next morning, they found Lee’s men behind 
breast-works and ready for the fight. Lee 
had gotten between Grant and Richmond! 
That evening the two great armies were 
again facing each other on the banks of the 
Po river. Here they threw up breast-works, 
which may yet be seen. 


THE LIFE OF GHN. ROBERT EH. LEE. 73 


For twelve days, Grant made many at- 
tacks upon Lee’s lines. Early on the morn- 
ing of the 12th his men made an opening in 


Lee’s lines and poured in by 


thousands. Lee’s men 


LEE IN FRONT OF HIS TROOPS.| 


ran up quickly and soon a most terrible fight 
took place. The trenches ran with blood 
and the space was piled with dead bodies, 
whose lips were black with powder from bit- 
ing cartridges. 


74 THE LIFE OF GEN. ROBERT L. LEE. 


Though Grant held that position, he could 
not break through the second line. The 
little army in gray stood as firm as the 
mountains. 

In the fight of which I have just told you, 
General Lee again rode in front, with hat 
off, to lead the charge; but General Gordon 
dashed up and said: 

“These are Virginians and Georgians who 
have never failed. Go to the rear, General 
Ibe,” 

Then he said to the men: 

‘Must General Lee lead this charge?” 

“No! No!” they cried; ‘we will drive 
them back if General Lee will go to the 
ihe ie 

They rushed off and once more hurled back 
the Federal troops. 

Grant now sent his cavalry general, Sher- 
idan, on a raid near Richmond. A fierce 
battle was fought at Yellow Tavern, in which 
the famous Jeb Stuart was wounded so that 


THE LIFE OF GEN. ROBERT L. LEE. 7 


he died the next day. Alas for Lee! Jackson 
and Stuart were both gone. 

Grant again moved to the rear, and Lee 
next moved to the North Annariver. While 
Grant was again trying to flank, Lee got to 
the old works at Cold Harbor. Grant made 
an attack at daylight. His troops, sinking 
into a swamp, were killed by thousands, 
while Lee lost but few men. 

A second assault was ordered, but the men 
would not move forward. About thirteen 
thousand of their comrades had been killed 
in less than half an hour, and they could no 
longer stand the awful fire. 

We are told by General Fitzhugh Lee that 
Lee’s men were hungry and mad. One 
cracker to a man, with no meat, was a 
luxury. One poor fellow, who had _ his 
cracker shot out of his hand before he could 
eat it, said: “The next time [ll put my 
cracker in a safe place down by the breast- 
works where it won’t get wounded, poor 
thing!” 


76 THE LIFE OF GEN. ROBERT E. LEE. 


Lee again stood in Grant’s way to Rich- 
mond. In the battles from the Wildervess 
to Cold Harbor, Grant had lost sixty thou- 
sand men, while Lee’s loss was eighteen 
thousand. 

Just before the battle of Cold Harbor, 
Grant had looked for Sigel to move up the - 
Valley and fall upon Lee’s rear. But Sigel 
was met at New Market on May Ldth by 
Breckenridge with five thousand troops, 
among which was a band of cadets from the 
Virginia Military Institute at Lexington. 
These boys fought like heroes, fifty of them 
being killed and wounded. Sigel was sent 
running back down the Valley, and Brecken- 
ridge then marched to the help of Lee. 

Grant then, on the mght of June 12th, 
began to move his army south of the James 
river to march towards Petersburg, a city 
about twenty-one miles south of Richmond. 

The famous General Beauregard (Bo re- 
gard) was at Petersburg with only about 
two thousand men, as he had sent the most 


THE LIFH OF GHN. ROBERT H. LEE. 77 


of his troops to the north side of the James 
river to the help of Lee. 

Against these, on the 15th, Cel Grant 
sent eighteen thousand men. 

Beauregard held these men in check until 
Lee sent troops to aid him. Lee then came 
up with the main army, and Grant, having 
lost ten thousand men, now began to make 
trenches and build forts to protect his men, 
as he was going to lay siege to Petersburg, 
the key to Richmond. 

Lee had to defend both Richmond and 
Petersburg with lines thirty-five miles long, 
against Grant’s army, which was twice as 
large as his own. In fact, Grant had all 
the men that he asked for; while Lee’s 
ranks were thin and food was scarce. A fourth 
of a pound of meat and one pound of flour 
was all that each soldier had for one day. 

In this stress, it is said that Lee thought 
it best to give up Richmond and march south 
to jom the army there. I do not know the 
truth of that statement. At any rate, he 


78 THE LIFE OF GEN. ROBERT #. LEE. 


did not go, but went to work to make his 
lines stronger and to get in food for his men. 
One of his great cares was to keep Grant 
from getting hold of the railroads which 
brought food from the South and other parts 
of the country. 

Just here, it will be well to give you some 
of the war prices at that time. Flour brought, 
in Confederate money, two hundred and fifty 
dollars per barrel; meal, fifty dollars; corn, 
forty ; and oats, twenty-five dollars per bushel. 
Brown sugar cost ten dollars per pound; 
coffee, twelve dollars; tea, thirty-five dollars; 
and they were scarce and hard to get. 
Woolen goods were scarce; calico cost thirty 
dollars per yard, and lead pencils one dollar 
a-piece. Women wore dresses that were 
made of cloth spun, woven and dyed by 
their own hands. Large thorns were used 
for pins and hair-pins, and shoes were made 
with wooden soles. Hats: were made by girls 
out of wheat straw, plaited into a braid and 
then sewed into shape. 


THE LIFE OF GEN. ROBERT EH. LEE. 79 


Those were indeed hard times; but in spite 
of want and care, the spirits and courage of 
the Southern people did not flag. All food 
that could be spared was sent to Richmond, 
and every one hoped for the best. 

Time after time Grant’s men made attacks 
upon Lee’s works, but were always sent back 
faster than they came, by his watchful men. 

The shells from Grant’s big guns fell into 
the city of Petersburg day after day, burst- 
ing into the churches and houses, and making 
the people flee for their lives. 

One day, as General Lee was sitting on a 
chair under a tree at his headquarters, the 
‘Clay House,” the balls fell so thick about 
him that his aids begged him to seek a safer 
place. He at last mounted his horse and 
rode away. A moment after, a gay young 
soldier sat down in the chair and tilted it 
back, saying, ‘‘I’ll see if I can fill Lee’s place 
for awhile.’ Just then a ball struck the 
front round of the chair and cut it in twain. 
If Lee had been there, with the chair upon 


80 THE LIFE OF GHN. ROBERT #. LHE. 


the ground, he would have been badly hurt. 
All thanked God that he was safe. 

On June 22d, the Confederates under 
General Mahone made a sally from their 
lines and gave the Federals a great surprise. 
As the Southern shot and shell burst upon 
thei, they fled back into their lines and the 
Confederates brought off two thousand prison- 
ers, four cannon and eight flags. 

On the same day, there was a fight at 
Reams’ Station, in which the Federals were 
put to fight and lost twelve guns and one 
thousand men. 

All this time, Grant was making earth- 
works and forts, and at last carried out’ a 
very cruel plan. From a spot out of sight, 
he had a mine dug until it reached under 
one of the Confederate forts. In that hole 
he had caused to be placed a blast of eight 
thousand pounds of powder. His plan was 
to blow a hole in Lee’s lines and then rush 
in with a large band of men and take the 
city. 


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THE LIFH OF GEN. ROBERT #. LEE. Sn 


General Lee found out that they were dig- 
ging the mine and where it was, and had a 
strong line made in the rear, while big guns 
were placed so as to fire across the breach 
when the mine was sprung. 

At that time there were only thirteen 
thousand men in the trenches at Petersburg, 
as General Lee had been forced to send some 
of his troops to the north of the James to 
check a move which Grant had made on 
purpose to draw off Lee’s men from the’mine. 

Just at dawn, July 30th, the blast was 
fired. A great roar was heard, and then 
two hundred and fifty-six men from South 
Carolina and twenty-two from Petersburg, 
with guns, large masses of earth, stones and 
logs, were thrown high into the air. A 
breach one hundred and thirty-five feet long, 
ninety feet wide, and thirty feet deep, had 
been made in the Confederate lines. Those 
near the spot were at first stunned, and 
those far away could not think what the 
noise meant. 


82 THE LIFE OF GEN. ROBERT E. LEE. 


Grant’s guns fired at once all along the 
line, and a band of men marched out to rush 
in through the breach. When they had 
rushed across the space to the gap, they 
found a deep pit at their feet. 


EXPLOSION OF THE CRATER. 


The Confederates had now gained their 
wits, and at once opened fire. The storm of 
shot and shell forced the Federals down into 
the pit for shelter; but when there, they could 
not getout. Band after band of Federals were 
sent forward to charge the works, but they 


THE LIFE OF GEN. ROBERT £. LEE. 83 


either fell into the Crater or ran back to their 
own lines. 

Two hours had now passed, when black 
troops were sent to seize the guns which 
were doing such deadly work. They marched 
bravely up, but the Confederate fire was too 
hot for them and they ran for their lives— 
some into the Crater, and some back to their 
own lines. White troops were again sent 
forward, but they, too, were driven back. 
All this time the Crater was full of wounded, 
struggling and dying men, upon whom the 
hot sun beat and shot poured down. 

Soon General Lee rode up, and by his 
orders, General Mahone, with Weisiger’s and 
Wright’s brigades, came up and charged with 
a yell upon the Federals who had for the 
first time reached the breast-works. There 
was a fierce hand-to-hand fight, but the 
Federals were quickly forced back. 

All honor is due to the few men who had 
so bravely held the breach until help came. 

Just at this time a white flag was seen to 


84 THE LIFE OF GEN. ROBERT E. LEE. 


float above the side of the Crater, which told 
that some were alive down there and teady 
to give up. 

In this strange fight Grant lost about four 
thousand men and Lee about four hundred. 

The pluck and skill of Lee and a few men 
had foiled a well-laid plan and showed what 
these brave heroes could do after years of toil 
and battle. 

Lee now thought that if he would again 
send troops to threaten Washington, he 
might cause Grant to move some of his 
large army there, and thus give him (Lee) a 
chance to hurl back the hosts of Grant from 
Richmond. So he sent General Karly down 
the Valley into Maryland with only ten thou- 
sand men. 

They went as fast as they could, and on 
July 9th met, at Monocacy Bridge, General 
Lew Wallace with seven thousand men. 
Having whipped him and taken from him 
two thousand men, Harly marched on to 

Washington. 


THE LIFE OF GEN. ROBERT #. LHE. 85 


On the 10th, his troops marched thirty 
miles, and on' the 11th were in front of 
Washington. But his force was too small 
and too. much worn out to try to attack the 
city. He coolly camped in front of it all 
day, and at might after a fight with some 
Federal troops sent to catch him, went back 
into Virginia. 

This raid of Harly’s did not move Grant. 
He left Mr. Lincoln to take care of Washing- 
ton and kept the most of his men massed in 
front of Lee’s lines. 

It was about this time that the Federal 
General Sheridan passed up the Valley and 
burned two thousand barns filled with wheat 
and hay, and seventy mills filled with flour. 
He also drove off and killed four thousand 
head of stock. The boast was that “if a 
crow wants to fly down the Valley he must 
carry his food along.” 

This was a part of the plan to crush and 
starve Lee, for a great part of his flour and 
meat was sent from the Valley. 


86 THH LIFE OF GEN. ROBERT #H. LEE. 


After many trials, on August 18th Grant 
at last got hold of the Weldon railroad, which 
brought supplies from the south. This was 
a great blow to Lee. 

In the fall of this year, when meat was 
scarce, General Wade Hampton sent a note 
to General Lee, telling him that there was a 
large drove of beeves in the rear of Grant’s 
army and asked leave to take a force of 
horsemen and drive out the cattle. General 
Lee at last told him to go, but urged him to 
take great care not to be caught. 

The men were well on their way when day 
broke, and rode on until dark, when they 
came to a halt in a road overhung by the 
branches of trees. Here they slept, men 
and horses, till just at dawn they sprang to 
their saddles, and with the well-known yell 
dashed into the camp of the foe. The Fed- 
erals made a good fight for their meat; but | 
at last fell back, and the Confederates cap- 
tured and drove out more than two thousand 
beeves. These they brought safe into camp 


THE LIFE OF GHN. ROBERT EH. LEE. 87 


after having two fights and riding one hun- 
dred miles. 

This fresh meat was a great treat to Lee’s 
men and the cause of much fun. 

Lee’s lines were so close to Grant’s at one 
point that the men would often call over to 
each other. The Federals 
called the Confederates 
Johnny Rebs, while the Con- 


ee” ie of gZ7, JOHNNY REB AND BILLY YANK. 
| s i Ga 

Son © eri\” federate name for the 
riedeneils was Billy Yanks. On the day after 
the beef raid, one of Grant’s men called out: 


“T say, Johnny Reb, come over. I’ve got 


a new blue suit for you.” 
“Blue suit?” growled out Johnny. 
“Yes” said the other, ‘take off those 


~ 


88 THE LIFE OF GEN. ROBERT E. LER. 


greasy butternut clothes. I would, if I were 
VOU. 

‘Never you mind the grease, Billy Yank,” 
drawled out the Confederate, “I got that 
out’n them beeves’o yourn.”’ 

Pop! went the Federal’s gun, and the Con- 
federate was not slow to pop back at him. 

General Lee’s life was now full of care; 
as soon as one attack on his lines was over, 
another was begun. He lived in a tent and 
would go down to the trenches himself to see 
how his men were getting on. 

An old soldier relates that one flag he 
came into the trenches when the firmg was 
quite rapid. The men did not dare to cheer, 
lest they might bring a hotter fire from the 
foe, but they crowded around him and begged 
him to go back. But he calmly asked after 
their health and spoke words of cheer. Then 
he walked to a big gun and asked the lieu- 
tenant to fire, so that he might see its range 
and work. The officer said, with tears in his 
eyes, ‘“‘General, don’t order me to fire this 


THE LIFE OF GEN. ROBERT #. LEE. 89 


gun while you are here. They will open fire 
over there with all those big guns and you 
will surely get hurt. Go back out of range 
and Ill fire all day.” General Lee was 
greatly touched by this, and went back, 
while the men quickly fired off the huge gun. 

Lee needed not only men, but food for 
those he had. Many men died from cold 
and want. 

The winter of 1864 and ’65 was a sad one 
for Lee and the South. There were no more 
men in the South to take the place of those 
who had been killed. 

The corn and wheat of the South had been 
burnt and the cattle killed by the Northern 
armies. The people sat down to empty 
tables and had no more food to send their 
men. 

Mrs. Lee, in her sick chair in Richmond, 
“with large heart and small means” knit 
socks, which she would send at once to the 
bare-footed men. 


90 THE LIFE OF GEN. ROBERT #. LHE. 


On January 10, 1865, General Lee writes 

to Mrs. Lee: 
_ “Yesterday three little girls walked into 
my room, each with a small basket. The 
eldest had some fresh eggs, the second some 
pickles, and the third some pop-corn, which 
had grown in her garden. * * ‘They had 
with them a young maid with a block of soap 
made by hermother. They were the daugh- 
ters of a Mrs. Nottingham, a refugee from 
Northampton county. le hadenot 
had so nice a visit for a long time. I was 
able to fill their baskets with apples, and 
begged them to bring me hereafter nothing 
but kisses, and to keep the eggs, corn, etc., 
for themselves.”’ 

Lee’s men were ragged and starving, but 
they fought on till April Ist, 1865, when, 
at Five Forks, the left wing of Grant’s large 
army swept around the right and rear of 
Lee, and made him give up Richmond and 
Petersburg. 

When the Southern troops were leaving 


THE LIFE OF GEN. ROBERT E. LEE. 91 


Richmond, by law of Congress the tobacco 
houses were set on fire to keep them from 
falling into the hands of the foe. The fire 
spread, and Mrs. Lee’s house was in danger 
of being burnt. Friends came in and 
wished to move her to a place of safety, but 
she was loath to go. The fire had no terror for 
her as she thought of her husband with his 
band of ragged, starving men marching with 
their ‘‘faces turned from Richmond.” White 
clouds of dense smoke, with the light of fire 
in their folds, hung above the city as the 
Federal army, with waving flags and clash- 
ing music, marched in and stacked arms in 
the Capitol Square. 

In the meantime, Lee marched on towards 
Amelia Court-House, where he had ordered 
‘meat and bread to be sent for his men. But 
when he got there he found that it had been 
sent elsewhere, and now real want set in. 
His men had nothing to eat but corn, which 
they would parch at night and eat as they 
marched along. General Lee’s plan had 


92 THE LIFE OF GHN. ROBERT £. LEE. 


been to march south and join General John- 
ston, but some time had been lost in looking 
for food, and General Grant’s hosts were near 
at hand. | 

So Lee fell back towards Lynchburg, but 
on April 9th, 1865, bemg entirely surrounded 
by Grant’s vast army, he and his few ragged 
men surrendered to General Grant at Appo- 
mattox Court-House. Lee had only eight 
thousand men, while Grant’s army numbered 
about two hundred thousand. 

In all these battles, of which I have told 
you, General Lee had never been really de- 
feated; but he gave up at last because he 
had no more men and no more food. The 
Northern generals had all the men and food 
they asked for, as they had the world to 
draw from; but the South, being blockaded, 
or shut in by Northern ships of war, could 
not get what she needed from other lands. 

Lee did all that courage and genius could 
do against such odds, and was, without doubt, 
the greatest commander of his time. 


THE LIFE OF GEN. ROBERT HE. LEHE. 93 


Colonel Venable, an officer on General 
Lee’s staff, tells this story of the surrender: 
“When I told General Lee that the troops 
in front were not able to fight their way out, 
he said ‘Then, there is nothing left me but 
to go and see General Grant, and I would 


Y oy 


rather die a thousand deaths. 

Another officer says that when Lee was 
thinking of the surrender he exclaimed, 
“How easily I could get rid of all this and 
be at rest! I have only to ride along the 
lines and all will be over. But,”’ he added 
quickly, ‘7 7s our duty to live, for what will 
become of the women and children of the 
South if we are not here to support and pro- 
tect them ?”’ 

So, with a heart bursting with grief, he 
once more did his duty. He went at once 
to General Grant and surrendered himself 
and his few remaining men. 

By the terms of the surrender, Lee’s men 
gave up their fire-arms, but all who had 


94 THE LIFE OF GEN. ROBERT E. LHE. 


horses took them home, ‘‘to work their little 
farms.”’ 

General Grant, it must be said, was most 
kind to General Lee and his men. He did 
not ask for General Lee’s sword, nor did Lee. 
offer it to him; neither did he require Lee’s 
men to march up to stack their guns between — 
ranks of Federals with flags flying and bands 
playing. Lee’s men simply went to places 
which were pointed out and stacked their 
guns. Their officers then signed a parole 
not to fight again against the United States. 
They were then free to go back to their 
homes, which, in some cases, were burnt— 
blight and want being on every side. 

After all, Grant did not go to Lee’s camp 
or to Richmond to exult over the men who 
had so often met him in battle; but he 
mounted his horse, and, with his staff, rode 
to Washington. Before going, he sent to 
Lee twenty-five thousand rations; for, as I 
have told you, Lee’s men had nothing to eat ' 
but parched corn. 


THE LIFE OF GEN. ROBERT EH. LHE. 95 


After the surrender, Lee rode out among 
his men, who pressed up to him, eager to 


“touch his person, or even his horse,’”’ and 
tears fell down the powder-stained cheeks of 
the strong men. Slowly he said: 

“Men, we have fought the war together; 


LEE eo. G APPOMATTOX C. H. 
I have done my best for you; my heart is 
too full to say more.”’ 

‘And then in silence, with lifted hat, he 
rode through the weeping army towards his 
home in Richmond.” 

As General Lee rode on towards Rich- 


96 THE LIFE OF GEN. ROBERT EH. LHE. 


mond he was calm, and his thoughts dwelt 
much more on the state of the poor people 
at whose houses he stopped than upon his 
own bad fortune. When he found that all 
along the road the people were glad to see 
him and gave him gladly of what they had to 
eat, he said, ‘“These good people are kind— 
too kind. They do too much—more than 
they are able to do—tor us.” | 

At a house which he reached just at night, 
a poor woman gave him a nice bed; but, 
with a kind shake of the head, he spread 
his blanket and slept upon the floor. 

The next day he stopped at the house of 
his brother, Charles Carter Lee; but, when 
night came, left the house and slept in his 
old black wagon. He could not give up at 
once the habits of a soldier. 

When, at last, the city of Richmond was 
in sight, he rode anead with a few of his 
officers. A sad sight met his view. In the 
great fire of the 3d of April, a large part of 
the city had been burned, and, as he rode 


THE LIFE OF GEN. ROBERT #. LEE. 97 


up Main street, he saw only masses of black 
ruins. 

As he rode slowly, some of tne people saw 
him, and at once the news flashed through 
the streets that General Lee had come. 

The people ran to greet him, and showed 
by cheers and the waving of hats and hand- 
kerchiefs how much they loved him. 

General Lee now went home and there 
again took up his duty. He had fought for 
the South, which had failed to gain the vic- 
tory. He thought that it was now the duty 
of every good man to avoid hate and malice 
and do all that he could to build up the 
waste places of his dear land. He had been 
a soldier for forty years, and, for the first 
time since manhood, was in private life. 

He now enjoyed the company of his wife 
and children, and as long as he kept his 
parole and the laws in force where he lived, 
was thought to be safe. There were, how- 
ever, steps taken to try him for treason; but 
General Grant went to the President and 


98 THE LIFE OF GHN. ROBERT #. LEE. 


told him that his honor was pledged for the 
safety of General Lee, and that he wished 
him to be let alone. So, General Grant’s 
request was granted and no trial took place. 

After some months the Lee family left 
Richmond and went to live at the house of 
a friend in Powhatan county. 

The spring and summer of 1865 was spent 
by our hero in taking the rest which he so 
much needed. 


Réf'ugee’, one who leaves home for safety. 
Siége, the act of besetting a fortified place. 
Harled, thrown. 

Génius, a great mind. 

Surrén’der, the act of yielding to another. 


What do you remember about— 
Chancellorsville ? 
The death of General Jackson ? 
Gettysburg? 
The Wilderness? 
LES tO Une nese e~ 
Cold Harbor ? 
The siege of Richmond and Petersburg? 
The surrender ? 
General Grant’s kindness? 


° 
batty Her 


VIRGINIA BATTLE-FIELDS. 


THE LIFE OF GHN. ROBERT E£. LEE. 99 


CHAPTER VI. 
A College President. 


In October, 1865, General Lee became 
President of Washington College, in Lexing- 
ton, Virginia. Many other places of trust 
were offered him, but he chose to lead the 
young men of the South in the paths of 
peace and learning, as he had so nobly done 
in times of war. 

General Lee rode on his war-horse, Traveler, 
from Powhatan county to Lexington in four 
days. As he drew rein in front of the village 
inn, an old soldier knew him, gave the mili- 
tary salute, and, placing one hand upon the 
bridle and the other upon the stirrup, stood 
and waited for him to dismount. 

On October 2d, 1865, General Lee took 
the oath of office, before William White, Esq., 
justice of the peace. The General stood, 
dressed in a plain suit of gray, his arms 


100 THE LIFE OF GEN. ROBERT E. LEE. 


folded, and his eyes calmly fixed upon Judge 
Brockenbrough, as he read the oath of office. 

The great chief was now changed into a 
college president. ‘I have,” said he, “a 
task which I cannot forsake.” That task 
was not easy, for the college had lost much 
during the war and now had to be built up 


in every way. 


WASHINGTON & LEE UNIVERSITY AND COLLEGE CHAPEL. 


He went to work with great skill and 
energy, and soon all felt that a great man 
was leading them. 

Some one has aptly said, ‘Suns seem 
larger when they set;’’ so it was with Lee. 
At this time of his life he appears nobler 
and grander than ever before. In his quiet 


THE LIFE OF GEN. ROBERT E. LHE. 101 


study, away from the noise of the world, he 
gave his time and talents to the young men 
of his dear South. His earnest wish was to 
make Washington College a great seat of 
learning, and for this he worked and made 
wise plans. 

In March, 1866, he went to Washington 
city to appear as a witness before the com- 
mittee which was inquiring into the state of 
things in the South. This was his first visit 
to any of the cities since the war, and it 
caused much comment. 

General Fitz. Lee tells us that the day 
after his return, he proposed a walk with 
one of his daughters, who said, in fun, that 
she did not admire the new hat which he 
was about to put on. ‘You do not like my 
hat?” said he; ‘‘why, there were a thou- 
sand people in Washington the other day 
admiring this hat.” This was the only time 
that he spoke of the crowds of people who 
sought him while in that city. 

When _his nephew, General Fitz. Lee, 


102 THE LIFE OF GEN. ROBERT #. LEE. 


wrote to know what he thought of having 
the Southern dead moved from the field of 
Gettysburg, he said, ‘‘I am not in favor of 
moving the ashes of the dead unless for a 
worthy object, and I know of no fitter rest- 
ing-place for a soldier than the field on which 
he so nobly laid down his life.” 

It is sometimes asked if General Lee was 
content in the quiet of his home at Lexing- 
ton. This is what he wrote to a friend: 

“Ror my own part, I much enjoy the 
charms of civil life, and find, too late, that I . 
have wasted the best years of my life.” 

In his life as College President, duty was, 
as ever, his watchword. He knew each stu- 
dent by name, and just how well he studied. 

Once, when asked how a certain young 
man was getting along, he said: “He isa 
very quiet and orderly young man, but he 
seems very careful not to injure the health of 
his father’s son. Now, I do not want our 
young men to injure their health, but I 
want them to come as near it as possible.” 


THE LIFH OF GHN. ROBERT #. LEE. 108 


One of his friends relates that, even amidst 
this busy life at college, he found time to be 
the most polite gentleman in town. ‘How 
often have I seen him,” says this friend, 
‘in the stores and shops of Lexington, talk- 
ing pleasantly with each new comer; or, 
walking a mile through mud and snow to 
call on some humble family, who will hand 
it down as an event in their lives that they 
had a visit from General Lee!” 

Seeing, during the first year, that the col- 
lege chapel was not large enough, he at once 
began to plan for a new one. He chose the 
site for it in front of the other houses, so 
that it might be in full view. He then had 
the plan drawn under his own eye, and did 
not rest until it was finished and opened for 
the service of God. 

In this chapel his body now rests, as I 
shall tell you hereafter. 

Early in 1870, in the midst of these 
labors, his health began to fail. There was 
a flush upon his cheek, and an air of weari- 


104 THE LIFE OF GEN. ROBERT E#. LEE. 


ness about him which alarmed his friends. 
Rheumatism of the heart and other parts of 
the body had set in, and in March, 1870, he 
went south ‘“‘to look upon other scenes and 
enjoy the breezes in the ‘land of sun and 
flowers.’” His daughter Agnes went with 
him. 

On this trip he once more went to see his 
father’s grave, on an island off the coast 
of Georgia, where, you remember, General 
Henry Lee was taken when so ill on board 
ship, and where he died. They placed fresh 
flowers upon the grave, which they found in 
good order, though the house had been burnt 
and the island laid waste. 

His health seemed better when again at 
home; but soon his step was slower, and the 
flush upon his cheek began to deepen. ‘A 
noble life was drawing to a close.”’ 

On the morning of October 12, 1870, the 
news flashed over the wires that General 
Lee was dead. He had taken cold at a ves- 
try meeting. The church was cold and 


GENHENKY LEE 
of 
VIRGINIA 
obit 
25° MARCH i818 
Aetat 63 


GRAVE OF LEE’S FATHER. 


106 THE LIFE OF GHN. ROBERT E. LEE. 


damp, and a storm was raging outside. He 
grew chilly, and when he reached home was 
unable to speak. 

Mrs. Lee wrote thus of his last hours: 

‘‘My husband came in while we were at 
tea, and I asked where he had been, as we 
had waited some time for him. He did not 
reply, but stood up as if to say grace. No 
words came from his lips, but with a sad 
smile he sat down in his chair.” 

He could not speak! A bed was at once 
brought to the dining-room, and the doctors 
sent for. At first he grew better, but soon 
a change came for the worse. 

He rarely spoke except when sleeping, and 
then his thoughts were with his much- 
loved soldiers on the ‘dreadful battle- 
fields.” Among his last words were, ‘‘ Tell 
Hill he must come up.”’ 

Once when General Custis Lee said some- 
thing about his getting well, he shook his 
head and pointed upward. When his doc- 


THE LIFH OF GEN. ROBERT E. LEE. 107 


tor said, to cheer him, ‘How do you feel 
to-day, General?”’ General Lee said slowly, 
Seieelabetter:” 

The doctor then said: 

“You must make haste and get well. 
Traveler has been standing so long in the 
stable that he needs exercise.” 

The General made no reply, but shook his 
head and closed his eyes. Once or twice he 
put aside his medicine, saying, ‘It is no 
use.” 

On October 10th, about midnight, he was 
seized with a chill and his pulse became 
feeble and rapid. The next day he was seen 
to be sinking. He knew those around him, 
but was not able to speak. Soon after nine 
o’clock on the morning of the 12th, he closed 
his eyes on earthly things and his pure soul - 
took its flight to God. 

It was thought that the strain and hard- 
ships of war, with sorrow for the ‘Lost 
Cause’? and the griefs of his friends, had 
caused his death. Yet, to those who saw 


108 VHE LIFE OF GHN. ROBERT EH. LHE. 


his calmness in all the trials of life, it did 
not seem true that his great soul had been 
worn away by them. 

The college chapel was chosen by Mrs. 
Lee as a burial place for her husband, and 
one-and-a-half o’clock P. M. on the 13th of 
October was the time fixed on for moving 
the remains to the chapel, where they were 
to he in state until Saturday, the 15th of 
October, the day for the burial. 

At the hour named, a long procession, 
with Professor J. J. White as chief marshal, 
was formed. Old soldiers formed an escort 
of honor. Just after the escort came the 
hearse, preceded by the clergy and twelve 
pall-bearers. In rear of the hearse, Traveler, 
the 1ron-gray war-horse of General Lee, was 
led by two old soldiers. Then followed a 
long line of students, cadets and people. 

The body was borne to the college chapel 
and laid in state upon the dais, the people 
passing slowly by, that each one might look 
upon the face of the dead. The body was 


THE LIFE OF GHN. ROBERT EH. LHE. 109 


clad in a simple suit of black and lay in 
a coffin, strewed by loving hands with rare, 
pale flowers. The chapel was then placed 
in charge of the guard of honor. This guard 
of students kept watch by the coffin day and 
night. 

On the 14th, a funeral service was held 
in the chapel; and on the L5th of October, 
as I have said, the body was borne to the 
tomb. The flag of Virginia hung at half- 
mast above the college and a deep gloom 
rested upon all. 

As the procession moved off, the bells of 
the town began to toll, and the Virginia 
Military Institute battery fired minute-guns. 
All was simple and without display. Nota 
flag was to be seen along the line. The 
Rey. J. William Jones tells us as follows: 

“The old soldiers wore their citizen’s 
dress, with black ribbon in the lapel of their 
coats; and Traveler, with trappings of mourn- 
ing on his saddle, was again led by two old 
soldiers. The Virginia Military Institute was 


110 THE LIFE OF GEN. ROBERT #, LEE. 


very beautifully draped, and from its turrets 
hung at half-mast, and draped in mourning, 

the flags of all the States of the late Southern 

Confederacy. 

‘‘When the procession reached the Insti- 
tute, it passed the corps of cadets drawn up 
in line, and a guard of honor presented arms 
as the hearse went by. When it reached 
_ the chapel, where a large throng had gathered, 
the students and cadets, about six hundred 
and fifty strong, marched into the left door 
and aisle past the remains and out by the 
right aisle and door to their proper place. 

“The rest of the line then filed in, the 
family, with Drs. Barton and Madison, and 
Colonels W. H. Taylor and C. 8. Venable, 
members of General Lee’s staff during the 
war, were seated just in front of the pulpit, 
and the clergy and the Faculties of the Col- 
lege and Institute had places on the plat- 
form. 

“The coffin was again covered with flowers 
and evergreens. 


THE LIFE OF GEN. ROBERT #. LEE. 111 


“Then the Rev. Dr. Pendleton, the dear 
friend of General Lee, his Chief of Artillery 
during the war, and his rector the past five 
years, read the beautiful burial service of 
the Episcopal Church. There was no ser- 
‘mon, and nothing said besides the simple 
service, as General Lee had wished. 

“When the body had been placed in the 
vault, the chaplain read the concluding ser- 
vice from the bank on the southern side of 
the chapel, and then the grand old hymn, 
‘How firm a foundation, ye saints of the Lord,’ 
was sung by the people. 

“The vault is of brick and just reaches 
the floor of the library. Upon the white 
marble are these words: 


‘““¢ Ropert Kpwarp Les, 
Born January 19, 1807; 
Died October 12, 1870.’’ 


The white marble top has now been re- 
placed by the beautiful recumbent statue 
by Valentine, a Virginia sculptor. 


112 THE LIFE OF GHN. ROBERT E. LHE. 


All the South mourned for Lee. Bells 
were tolled in cities and villages, and meet- 


ings were held to express the grief of the 
people. 


RECUMBENT STATUE OF LEE. 


This is what a little girl wrote to Mrs. 
Lee: 

‘‘T have heard of General Lee, your hus- 
band, and of all his great and noble deeds 
during the war. I have also heard lately of 
his death. [ have read in the papers that 
collections are being made for the Lee mon- 


THE LIFE OF GHN. ROBERT E. LEE. 113 


ument. I have asked my mother to let me 
send some money that I earned myself. I 
made some of the money by keeping the door 
shut last winter, and the rest I made by 
digging up grass in the garden. I send you 
alll have. I wish it was more. I am nine 
now. 
“Respectfully, 
“Macerr McIntyre.” 

Many noble men and women also wrote to 
Mrs. Lee, and money was given, until now 
there are two beautiful statues of General 
Lee—one in Lexington, where he is buried, 
and the other in Richmond, the city he 
fought so hard to save. 

Virginia mourned for her noble son. The 
State Legislature passed a bill making Jan- 
uary 19th, the birthday of Robert H. Lee, a 
legal holiday. 

On that day, all over the South, meet- 
ings are held in memory of him, speeches 


114 THE LIFH OF GHN. ROBERT E. LEE. 


are made by great men, and children recite 
poems which honor his name and deeds. 

Perhaps no man has ever lived, so great, 
so good, so unselfish as Lee. Duty was the 
key-note of his life. In the midst of his 
greatness he was humble, simple and gentle. 
He loved little children wherever he met 
them. 

“One day, during the war, a number of 
little girls were rollmg hoops on the side- 
walks in Richmond, when General Lee came 
riding towards them. They stopped playing 
to gaze at so great a man. To their sur- 
prise, he threw his rein to his courier, dis- 
mounted, and kissed every one of them. 
Then mounting, he rode away, with a sunny 
smile of childhood in his heart and plans of 
great battles in his mind.” 

‘While in Petersburg, in the winter of 
1864, he went to preaching one day at a 
crowded church, and saw a little girl, dressed 
in faded garments, standing just inside the 
door and looking for a seat. ‘Come with 


THE LIFH OF GEN. ROBERT #H. LHE. 115 


me, my little lady,’ said the great soldier, 
‘and you shall sit by me.’ Thus the great 
chief and poor child sat side by side.” 

Once when riding in the mountains with 
one of his daughters, they came upon a 
group of children who ran at the sight of 
him. General Lee called them back and 
asked : 

“Why are you running away’? Are you 
atraid of me?” 

“Oh! no, sir; but we are not dressed nice 
enough to see you.” 

‘Why, who do you think I am?” 

“You are General Lee. We know you by 
your picture.”’ 

So great was the love of the people for 
Lee that, after the war, almost every home 
had some picture of the great chief. 

General Lee knew all the children in Lex- 
ington whom he met in his walks and rides, 
and it was charming to see their joy when 
he would meet them. 

Once, when calling upon the widow of 


116 THE LIFE OF GEN. ROBERT #£. LEE. 


General A. P. Hill, her little girl met him 
at the door and held out her puppy which 
she had named after our hero. ‘O, General 
Lee,” she cried, ‘“‘here is ‘Bobby Lee’; do 
kiss him.”’ The great man made believe to 
kiss him and the child was delighted. 

In one of the Sunday-schools of Lexington 
a prize was offered to the child who should 
bring in the most pupils. 

A little boy of five went for his friend, 
General Lee, to get him to go to his school. 
When told that General Lee went to another 
school, he said with a deep sigh, ‘‘I am very 
sorry. [wish he could go to our school, and 
be my new scholar.” 

General Lee thought it quite funny, and 
said kindly; 

“Ah! C——, we must all try to be good 
Christians—that is the great thing. I can’t 
go to your school to be your new scholar 
to-day. But I am very glad you asked me. 
It shows that you are zealous m a good 
cause, and I hope that you will ever be so 


THH LIFH OF GHN. ROBERT H. LHE. 11? 


as you grow up. And I do not want you to 
think that I am too old to go to Sunday- 
school. No one is ever too old to study the 
truths of the Bible.”’ 

When he died, all the schools of Lexing- 
ton were closed, and the children wept with 
the grown people when they heard that their 
kind friend was dead. 

A gentleman tells this story, which is 
quite in keeping with General Lee’s way of 
pleasing children :— 

“When my little girl, about four years 
old, heard of General Lee’s death, she said 
to me, ‘Father, I can never forget General 
Lee.’ I asked, ‘Why?’ ‘Because, when 
Maggie and I were playing at the gate the 
other day, and General Lee was riding by,. 
he stopped and took off his hat and bowed 
to us and said, ‘Young ladies, don’t you 
think this is the prettiest horse you ever 
saw?’ And we said it was a very pretty 
horse. ‘Oh, no,’ he said; ‘I want to know 
whether Traveler is not the very prettiest 


GENERAL LEE ON TRAVELER. 


THE LIFH OF GHN. ROBERT H. LEE. 119 


horse you ever saw in your life.’ And when 
we looked at him, and saw how white and 
gay he was, we said, ‘Yes.’ Then he 
laughed and said, ‘Well, if you think he is 
so pretty, I will just let you kiss him’; and 
then he rode off smiling, and I don’t believe 
I can ever forget that.” 

Another gentleman, who was clerk of the 
faculty at Washington College, says that 
General Lee was very careful about little 
things. One day the clerk wrote a letter to 
some one at General Lee’s request, in which 
he used the term ‘our students.” When 
General Lee looked at it, he said that he 
did not like the phrase ‘‘our students.” He 
said that we had no property rights in the 
young men, and he thought it best to say, 
“the students,’ not ‘our students.” The 
clerk struck out with his pen the word 
“our” and wrote ‘“the.’”’ He then brought 
the letter to General Lee. ‘This will not 
answer,” said he. ‘I want you to write the 


120 _ THE LIFE OF GEN. ROBERT E. LEE. 


letter over.” So the clerk had to make a 
fresh copy. 

One day General Lee directed him to go 
to the Mess Hall and measure for a stove- 
pipe. ‘Set the stove in its place on its 
legs,”’ he said, ‘‘and measure the height to 
a point opposite the flue-hole, and then the 
space from the joint to the wall.’”’ The man 
returned with the measure. ‘Did you set 
the stove on its legs?”’ asked the General. 
The clerk replied no; that the legs were 
packed up inside the stove, and that he 
simply allowed for the legs. ‘But I told 
you to put the stove on its legs and then 
measure. Go back and do as you were 
told,” said the General, who was always 
kind but meant to be obeyed. 

The same gentleman remembers this amus- 
ing incident :— 

One day they saw a gentleman coming up 
the lawn, and wondered who he was. Gen- 
eral Lee shook hands with him as though he 
knew him, and chatted for some time. He 


THE LIFH OF GEN. ROBERT #H. LEE. 121 


tried in vain to remember his name. In the 
meantime Rev. J. William Jones, whose 
month it was to lead the services in the 
chapel, came up and whispered to General Lee 
to introduce the strange clergyman to him, so 
that he might ask him to conduct the ser- 
vices in his place. But General Lee, with 
his own ready tact, said: ‘Mr. Jones, it is 
time for service; you had better go in the 
chapel.” 

After service, when he could do so without 
being heard, General Lee asked Mr. Jones to 
find out the stranger’s name. He had met 
him in the Mexican war but could not recall 
his name. Mr. Jones did so, and General 
Lee, standing near, heard it, and then, with- 
out making it known that he had forgotten 
his friend of the Mexican war, introduced 
him to those who were near. He could not 
think of hurting the clergyman’s feelings by 
letting him know that he had been forgotten. 

General Lee was always careful not to 
injure what belonged to others. - 


122 THE LIFE OF GEN. ROBERT EL. LEE. 


‘‘A Southern Girl” tells this story of him: 

“When in Maryland, he gave strict orders 
that no harm should be done to property, 
and was once seer to get down from his 
horse and put up a fence-rail that his men 
had thrown down.” 

This story of General Lee went the rounds 
of the Southern newspapers in 1864 :— 

‘“‘On the train to Petersburg, one very cold 
morning, a young soldier, with his arm in a. 
sling, was making great efforts to put on 
his overcoat. In the midst of his trouble, 
an officer rose from his seat, went to him 
and kindly helped him, drawing the coat 
gently over the wounded arm, and then with 
a few kind words went back to his seat. 

‘‘Now, the officer was not clad in a fine 
uniform with a gilt wreath on his collar and 
many straps on his sleeves, but he had on 
a plain suit of gray, with only the three 
gilt stars which every Confederate colonel 
could wear. And yet, he was no other than 


THE LIFE OF GEN. ROBERT H. LHE. 123 


our chief general, Robert E. Lee, who is not 
braver than he is good and modest.” 

In the winter of 1864, some of the cavalry 
were moved to Charlottesville, in order to 
get food for their horses, and not having 
much to do, the officers began to attend 
dances. General Lee, hearing of this, wrote 
to his son Robert thus: 

“T am afraid that Fitz was anxious to get 
back to the ball. This is a bad time for 
such things. * * There are too many 


Lees on the committee. I like them all to be 
at battles, but I can excuse them at balls.”’ 

It is said that during the seven days’ 
battle, of which I have told you, he was 
sitting under a tree, the shades of evening 
hiding even the stars on his coat collar, 
when a doctor rode up and said : 

‘Old man, I have chosen that tree for my 
field hospital and I want you to get out of 
the way.” 

“J will gladly give way when the wounded 


124 THH LIFH OF GHN. ROBERT #H. LEE. 


come up, but in the meantime there is plenty 
of room for both of us,” was the reply. 

The angry man was about to make some 
retort when a staff officer rode up and spoke 
to his ‘“‘old man” as General Lee. 

The doctor then began to make excuse for 
his rudeness, but General Lee said quietly: 

“Tt is no matter, Doctor; there is plenty 
of room till your wounded come up.” 

This story is often told of him: In 1864, 
when General Lee was on the lines below — 
Richmond, many soldiers came near him 
and thus brought to them the fire of the foe. 
He said to the soldiers: ‘‘Men, you had bet- 
ter go into the back-yard; they are firmg up 
here and you might get hurt.” 

The men obeyed, but saw their dear Gen- 
eral walk across the yard and pick up some 
object and place it in a tree over his head. 
They found out that the object he had risked 
his life for was only a little bird which had 
fallen out of its nest.. God had given the 
stern chief a heart so tender that he could 


THE LIFE OF GEN. ROBERT #. LEE. 125 


pause amid a rain of shot and shell to care 
for a tiny fallen birdling. 

General Lee dearly loved his horses. Once, 
when at the springs, he wrote to his clerk in 
Lexington and sent this message to his horse, 
Traveler: ‘Tell him I miss him dreadfully.” 

Traveler lived only two years after the 
death of his master. In the summer of 
1872, when he was fifteen years old, the 
fine, faithful animal, that had carried the 
General through the storms of war and the 
calm of his latter years, died of lock-jaw in 
Lexington. He was noted for his springy 
walk, high spirit, and great strength. When 
a colt, he was called Jeff. Davis. The Gen- 
eral changed his name to Traveler. He was 
his most famous war-horse. 

In the summer of 1862, General -Lee 
owned a beautiful war-horse called Rich- 
mond, given to him by some friends in the 
city of Richmond. But, to the grief of his 
master, this pet was snort-lived; and what he 


126 THE LIFE OF GEN. ROBERT #. LEE. 


writes after his loss, sounds almost as if he 
were looking back to the death of a friend: 

‘His labors are over, and he is at rest. 
He carried me very faithfully, and I shall 
never have so beautiful an animal again.” 

General Lee was noted for his want of 
hatred towards any one. He called the 
Northern soldiers ‘‘those people.” Once, in 
the midst of a fierce battle, he said to his 
son Robert, who was bravely working at a 
big gun, ‘‘That’s right, my son; drive those 
people back.” When told of Jackson’s fatal 
wound, his eye flashed fire and his face 
flushed as he thought of his great loss; but 
he quietly said: 

‘General Jackson’s plans shall be carried 
out. Those people shall be driven back 
to-day.” 

The Rey. J. William Jones says—that one 
day after the war, as he went up the street, 
he saw General Lee standing talking to a 
poor man. As the man walked away he 
said to him: ‘That is one of the old sol- 


THE LIFE OF GHN. ROBERT £. LEE. 127 


diers, and added, ‘he fought on the other 
side; but we must not think of that.’” 
After the war, when at the springs, a lady 
friend pointed to a man near by and said to 
General Lee, ‘‘That is General , of the 
Federal Army. He is having quite a dull 
time. He is here with his daughters, but 


we do not care to have anything to do with 
them.”’ 

“Tam glad that you told me,” said Gen- 
eral Lee; ‘‘I will see at once that they have 
a better time.”’ 

After that he took pains to make friends 
with ‘those people,’ and so set the fashion 


for others. General and his daughters 


were soon having ‘‘a better time.” 

General Lee was more than brave and 
tender; he was meek, yet with a heart big 
enough to love every one of his soldiers, and 
great enough to plan long marches and 
glorious battles. 

After the battle of Gettysburg, one of his 
officers rode up and told him that his men 


128 THE LIFE OF GEN. ROBERT #. LEE. 


were for the most part killed or wounded. 
Lee shook hands with him and said: ‘All 
this has been my fault. It is / who have 
lost this fight, and you must help me out as 
best you can.”’ 

Not once did Lee 
cast the blame 
where it belonged, 
. but rode among 
| his men with such 
words of cheer as 
these: ‘All this 
will come right in 
<a) the endear Ve 
—J want all good and 


PICKETT’S RETURN AFTER THE 
BATTLE OF GETTYSBURG. true men j ust 


now.” ‘All good men must rally.” In this 
way he closed up his broken lines, and 
Showed such a brave front that Meade did 
not deem it’well to renew the fight. 

Once, when some friends were at his house 
in Richmond, the Rev. Dr. 
sharp terms of the way in which the North 


spoke in 


THH LIFE OF GEN. ROBERT EL. LEE. 129 


had acted. General Lee said, ‘‘ Well! it mat- 
ters little what they may do to me; I am old, 
and have but-a short time to live at best.” 
When Dr. - got up to go home, Gen- 
eral Lee went with him to the door and said 
to him, ‘Doctor, there is a good book which 
I read, and which you preach from, which 


says, ‘Love your enemies, bless them that 
curse you, do good to them that hate you.’ 
Do you think your speech just now quite in 
that spirit?” 

When Dr. made some excuse, Gene- 
ral Lee said: “I fought the people of the 
North because I believed that they were 
seeking to wrest from the South her rights. 


* *«  * J have never seen the day when I 
did not pray .for them.” 

“One day during the war, as they were 
looking at the hosts of the foe, one of his 
generals said, ‘‘1 wish those people were all 
dead!’’ General Lee, with that grace which 
was his own, said, ‘‘How can you say so? 


130 THE LIFE OF GEN. ROBERT EH. LHE. 


Now, I wish that they would all go home 
and leave us to do the same.” 

At the close of the war, some of our best 
men went to seek homes in other lands. 
This, General Leedeemed wrong. He thought 
that the men of the South should stay at 
home and build up what had been laid 
waste by war. He wrote to one of his 
friends thus: ‘She (Virginia) has need for 
all of her sons, and can ill afford to spare 
you.”” Once mcre he wrote: ‘I think the 
South needs the aid of her sons more than 
at any time of her history. As you ask, I 
will state that I have no thought of leaving 
her.” 

In a word, the welfare of the impoverished, 
desolated South was his chief concern. He 
kept in sight the honor of the South, but not 
that hate to the North which brought no good. 

A lady who had lost her husband in the 
war, and had brought her two sons to col- 
lege, spoke in sharp terms of the North to 
General Lee. He gently said: ‘‘Madam, do 


THE LIFE OF GEN. ROBERT EH. LHE. 131 


not train up your children as foes to the 
Government of the United States. * #* 
We are one country now. Bring them up 
to be Americans.” Thus did this grand 
man, with a sad heart, try to do his duty at 
all times and on all occasions. 

Though meek in the way I have told you, 
General Lee was at the same time too proud 
to take the aid which, from time to time, his — 
friends would offer him. They knew that 
he had lost his ‘all’ by the war, and felt 
that he should now be helped, so that he 
might pass his days without care. But this 
proud man would take no aid. When, ina 
quiet way, the trustees of the college gave 
the house in which he lived to Mrs. Lee, and 
also the sum of three thousand dollars each 
year, he wrote, in Mrs. Lee’s name, a kind 
but firm letter and declined the gift. 

After his death, they again deeded the 
home to Mrs. Lee and sent her a cheek for 
a large sum of money. But she, with the 
pride of her husband, sent back the check 


132 THE LIFE OF GEN. ROBERT #. LEZ. 


and would not let the funds of the college be 
taken for her use. ? 

General Lee was always neat in his attire. 
This trait was the cause of much comment 
at the time of the ‘‘surrender.”’ : 

General Sharp, of the Federal Army, 
Says: , 

“Tt was late in the day when it was 
known that General Lee had sent for Gen- 
eral Grant. The surrender took place in 
the left-hand room of an old house which 
had a_ hall-way through it. In that 
room were a few officers, of whom I was 
one. 

‘A short space apart sat two men. The 
larger and taller of the two was the more 
striking. His hair was as white as snow. 
There was not a speck upon his coat; not a 
spot upon those gauntlets that he wore, 
which were as bright and fair as a lady’s 
glove. That was Robert EK. Lee. The other 
was Ulysses 8S. Grant. His boots were 
muddy, and he wore no sword. 


LEE AND GRANT. 


134 VHEH LIFE OF GHN. ROBERT H. LEE. 


“The words that passed between Lee and 
Grant were few. General Grant, while the 
men wrote out the terms of the surrender, 
said: ‘General Lee, I have no sword; I rode 
all night.” And General Lee, with the pride 
which became him well, made no reply, but 
in a cold, formal way, bowed. 

“Then General Grant, in the attempt to 
be polite, said: ‘I don’t always wear a 
sword.’ 

“Lee only bowed again. 

‘Some one else then said: ‘General Lee, 
what became of the white horse you rode in 
Mexico? He may not be dead yet; he was 
not so old.’ 

“General Lee again bowed and said: ‘I 
left him at the White House, on the Pa- 
munkey river, and [ have not seen him 
since.’ | 

“Then there were a few words, which 
we could not hear, spoken in a low tone 
of voice between Grant and Lee. 


THE LIFE OF GHN. ROBERT EH. LEE. 135 


“At last, when the terms of surrender 
had all been signed, Lee arose, cold and 
proud, and bowed to each man on our side 
in the room. And then he went out and 
passed down that little square in front of 
the house, and mounted the gray horse that 
had carried him all over Virginia. 

‘‘When he had gone we learned what the 
low-toned words had meant. General Grant 
turned and said: ‘You go and ask each 
man that has three rations to turn over two 
of them, and send them on to General Lee. 
His men are on the point of starvation.’”’ 

This calm, proud man was the same who 
a few hours before had said: ‘‘Then there is 
nothing left me but to go and see General 
Grant, and I would rather die a thousand 
deaths.” His superb, proud mien won from 
the foe only praise and respect. 

I must here give you General Fitzhugh 
Lee’s picture of the two generals at that 
time : 

“Grant, not yet forty-three years old, five 


136 THE LIFE OF GHN. ROBERT #. LEE. 


feet eight inches’ tall, shoulders slightly 
stooped, hair and beard nut-brown, wearing 
a dark-blue blouse ; top-boots, pants inside; 
dark thread gloves; without spurs or sword, 
and no marks of rank save the straps of a 
general. 

‘Lee, fifty-eight years old, six feet tall, 
hair and beard silver-gray; a handsome 
uniform of Confederate gray, buttoned to the 
throat, with three stars on collar, fine top- 
boots with spurs, new gauntlets, and at his 
side a splendid sword.”’ Lee wore his best 
in honor of the cause for which he fought. 

General Lee never touched tobacco, brandy 
or whiskey; he was always a sober man. 
Just as he was starting to the Mexican war, 
a lady in Virginia gave him a bottle of fine 
old whiskey, saying that he would be sure 
to need it, and that it was very fine. On 
his return home he sent the bottle, unopened, 
to his friend to convince her that he could 
get along without whiskey. 

General Lee once proposed to treat some 


THE LIFE OF GEN. ROBERT #. LHHE. 137 


of his officers, saying, ‘“‘I have a demijohn 
which I know is of the best.”” The demijohn 
was brought, and the cups, held out for the 
treat, were filled to. the brim—not with old 
“Rye,” but with fresh buttermilk, which a 
kind lady had sent. The General seemed 
to enjoy the joke hugely. 

Being once asked to a fine dinner, he re- 
fused all the good dishes, and said to the 
lady of the house: ‘‘I cannot consent to be 
feasting while my poor men are nearly 
starving.”’ 

It was his way to send any nice thing he 
might have to the sick and wounded in the 
hospitals. 

A lady relates that when her brother 
was badly wounded near Petersburg, he was 
taken to a tent near a hospital, out of 
range of the fire of the foe. One day Gen- 
eral Lee came riding up and went in to see 
the wounded man. He took him gently by 
the hand and told him to cheer up and get 
well; that he had use for all brave men like 


138 THE LIFH OF GEN. ROBERT #. LEE. 


him. Then he drew two fine peaches from 
his pocket and laid them on the side of the 
cot. 

Tears trickled down the wounded man’s 
pale cheeks as he listened to these kind 
words, and felt that his chief cared so 
much for him, a private soldier. 

Near the close of the war, when meat had 
become quite scarce, an aide of President 
Davis’, being at headquarters, was asked to 
dine. The meal spread on the rough board 
was corn-bread, and a small piece of meat in 
a large mess of greens. The aid saw that 
the meat was not touched, though General 
Lee had asked all to take a piece of it. 
When the meal was over, the aide asked one 
of the men why the meat was not eaten. 
The reply was, that it had been loaned by a 
friend to cook with the greens, and had to 
be returned. 

It was General Lee’s wish to fare just as 
his men did. When, during the siege of 
Petersburg, Mrs. Lee, fearing the great strain 


THE LIFE OF GEN. ROBERT E. LHE. 139 


would be too much for him begged him 
to take more care of his health, he wrote: 
“But what care cana man give to him- 
self in time of war?” He then went on 
to say that he lived in a tent in order to be 
near his men and the officers with whom 
he had to act; that he had been offered 
rooms by kind friends, but that he could 
not turn their homes into a camp. 

An English officer wrote this account of 
Lee’s headquarters in 1862: ‘Lee’s head- 
quarters I found were only seven or eight 
pole-tents, with their backs to a stake-fence, 
while a little stream of good water flowed 
close by. In front of the tents were three 
wagons, and a number of horses roamed over 
the fields. No guards were seen near, and 
no crowd of aids swarmed about. A large 
farm-house stood close by, which would have 
made a good home for the General, but Lee 
does not let his men rob or disturb the peo- 
ple, and likes to set them a good example.” 


140 £THH LIFH OF GHN. ROBERT E. LEE. 


It was in this way that he gained the 
great love of his men. 

A short time after the surrender, two 
ragged Confederates, just from prison in the 
North, waited upon the General and said 
that there were sixty other fellows around 
the corner who were too ragged to come. 
They had sent these two to offer their loved 
chief a home in the mountains of Virginia. 


1) 


“We will give you,” said one of them, ‘a 
good house and a fine farm. We boys will 
work for you and you shall never want.” 

Tears came to the eyes of General Lee as 
he told them that he must decline their gift. 
The offer of these men was but the feeling of 
the whole South. Though poor themselves, 
they would have given him houses, lands 
and money had he let them. 

Just after the war, General Lee rxeceived 
the following letter from one of his old soldiers: 


“ Dear General : 


“We have been fighting hard four years, and 
now the Yankees have got us in Libby Prison. 


THE LIFE OF GHN. ROBERT E. LEE. 141 


They are treating us awful bad. The boys want 
you to get us out if you can ; but if you can’t, just 
ride by the Libby and let us see you and give 
you acheer. We will all feel better for it.” 


This letter touched the tender heart of 
Lee, as well as this story which was told to 


LIBBY PRISON. 


him by Rev. J. Wiliam Jones: After the 
war, the latter was riding along a road one 
day, when he saw a young man plowing in 
a field, guiding the plow with one hand, 
for on the other side was an empty sleeve. 

He soon saw that the man plowing was a 
soldier whom he had known, and stopped to 
speak to him. In fact, he had known the 


142 THE LIFE OF GEN. ROBERT E LEE. 


young man from boyhood; how, at the first 
tap of the drum he had gone to fight for his 
native State; and how he had been maimed 
for life, and had gone home to find that he 
must work with one arm for his bread, as his 
fortune had been wrecked by the war. When 
he told the young man how sad it made him 
to see him thus, the latter said: ‘Oh! it is 
all right. I thank God that I have one arm 
left, and can use it for those I love.” 

When the Rev. Mr. Jones told this to 
General Lee, his face flushed, and he said: 
‘What a noble fellow! But it is just like 
one of our soldiers. The world has never 
seen nobler men than those who belonged to 
the Army of Northern Virginia.”’ 

The real corner-stone of Lee’s life was 
his trust in God. Whatever came to him he 
always said, ‘‘God’s will be done.” 

The death of the wite of his son, General 
W.H. Fitzhugh Lee, gave General Lee much 
grief. The former General was wounded and 
taken prisoner. While in prison his lovely 


THE LIFE OF GEN. ROBERT #. LEE. 143 


wife died. In this bitter grief, General Lee 
wrote to his son these words: 

“My whole trust is in God, and I am 
ready for whatever He may ordain.” 

While the army was at Mine Run, in No- 
vember, 1863, and a battle was at hand, 
General Lee, with a number of officers riding 
down the line of battle, came upon a party 
of soldiers who were holding a prayer-meet- 
-ing. The shooting had begun along the 
lines, the cannon were already roaring, and 
the mind and heart of the great chief were 
on the battle. Yet, as he saw these men 
bent in prayer, he dismounted and joined in 
the simple worship. So these humble men 
led the devotions of their loved General. 

One day in 1865, while riding along the 
lines with his staff, General Lee met the Rev. 
J. William Jones, who was giving tracts to 
the men in the trenches. He at once reined 
in his horse and spoke to this ‘‘man of God,” 
while the officers crowded around. 

General Lee asked if he ever had calls for 


144 THE LIFH OF GEN. ROBERT #H. LEE. 


prayer-books, and said that if he would come 
to his headquarters he would give him 
some—that a friend in Richmond had given 
him a new book; and upon his saying to his 
friend that he would give his old book, that 
he had used ever since the Mexican war, to 
some soldier, the friend offered him a dozen 
new books for the oldone. He had, of course, 
taken so grand an offer, and now had twelve, 
in place of one, to give away. 

When the Rey. Mr. Jones called, General 
Lee was out, but had left the books for 
Mr. Jones with one of his staff. He had 
written on the fly-leaf of each book, “ Pre- 
sented by R. EK. Lee.” 

We are sure that if any of these books 
were saved amid the din and stress of war, 
they are now much prized by those who 
own them. 

These are some of the words which General 
Lee would use when his army had gained the 
day: ‘Thanks be to God.” ‘God has again 
crowned the valor of our troops with success.”’ 


THE LIFH OF GEN. ROBERT #. LEE. 145 


Again, upon a fast-day, he said in an order, 
‘Soldiers ! let us humble ourselves before the 
Lord our God, ane, through Christ, the 
forgiveness of our sins.’ 

With the close of the war, the nicer of this 
great man seemed to increase. His seat at 
church was always filled, unless he was kept 
away by sickness, and he was ever ready 
for good works. He did not find fault with 
preachers, as so many do, but was most fond 
of those who were simple and true to the 
teachings of the Bible. 

Once he said toa friend: ‘Do you think 
that it would be any harm for me to hint to 
Mr. that we should be glad if he made 
his morning prayers a little short? You 


know our friend makes this prayer too long. 
He prays for the Jews, the Turks, and the 
heathen, and runs into the hour for our Col- 
lege recitations. Would it be wrong for me 
to hint to Mr. —— that he confine his 
morning prayers to us poor sinners at the 
College, and pray for the Turks, the Jews, 


146 THE LIFE OF GHN. ROBERT #. LEE. 


the Chinese, and other heathen some other 
time?”’ 

General Lee was a constant reader of the 
Bible. | One of his friends relates that, as he 
watched beside his body the day after death, 
he picked up from the table a well-worn 
pocket Bible, in which was written in his 
own hand, ‘‘R. E. Lee, Lieutenant-Colonel of 
U.S. Army.” This little book had been the 
light of his pathway through many trials. 

General Lee gave freely of his small means 
to his church and to the poor. At a vestry 
meeting which took place the evening of his 
illness, the sum of fifty-five dollars was needed 
for the pay of the Rector. Though he had 
before given his share, General Lee said in 
a low voice, ‘‘I will give the sum.” These 
were the last words he spoke to the vestry, 
and this giving was his last public act. 

His love for his wife and children is shown 
by the tender, loving letters he wrote when 
away from them. During the Civil War his 
anxiety for them was. great. 


THE LIFE OF GEN. ROBERT E#. LEE. 147 


Just before the Northern army crossed the 
Potomac, in 1861, Mrs. Lee left her beauti- 
ful home, Arlington, and came South. Ar- 
lington was at once seized by the Northern 
Government, and the grounds were taken 
for a burial-place for the Northern sol- 
diers. 6 

Mrs. Lee and her l = 
daughters then 
sought a home at 
the ‘‘White House,’’ 
‘on the Pamunkey x 


river, where Wash- x 
ington married 
the ‘‘ Widow Custis,’’ 
and which had been 
left by Mr. Custis to IN RICHMOND. 

one of General Lee’s sons. Mrs. Lee 
and her daughters were soon driven from 
there by the hosts of McClellan, and the 
house was burned to the ground. At last, 
they found a home in Richmond, where they 
lived until the close of the war. 


148 THE LIFE OF GEN. ROBERT #. LHE. 


Mrs. Lee’s health had failed, but a large 
part of her time was spent in knitting socks 
for the poor bare-footed soldiers of the South. 
Her brave daughters, also, knit socks, 
and nursed the sick and wounded soldiers. 

Those were 
sad times, and 
the Lee family 
suffered most 
heavily. 

The death of 
her noble bhus- 
band was a 
ereat shock to 
Mrs. Lee, who 
was then not 
able to walk 
without aid. 
She did not survive him many years, and 
now rests beside him in the College chapel 
at Lexington, Virginia. Their daughter 
Agnes, who died shortly after her father, 
is buried in the same place. 


MARY CUSTIS LEE. 


THE LIFE OF GEN. ROBERT #E. LHE. 149 


Close by is the grave of Stonewall Jackson. 
How meet that these two friends and heroes 
should rest so near each other! 

The blue mountains of their loved Virginia 
keep ‘“‘watch and ward” over their graves; 
and each year, pilgrims from every part of 
the land come to visit their tombs and place 
fresh flowers and green wreaths upon them. 

General Custis Lee was made President of 
the College in his father’s place. The Col- 
lege is now called the ‘“‘Washington and Lee 
University,” after Washington and Lee, the 
two great names in the history of our 
country. 


Con’course, a crowd of people. 
Cou’rier (k6d’rier), a man who carries an order 
for an officer. 


Pil/grim, a traveler to holy places. 


Tell me— 


What General Lee became in 1865. 
Something about his work. 
His visit to the South in 1870. 


150 THE LIFE OF GEN. ROBERT #. LHH. 


His illness and death. 

What day is kept throughout the South in 
memory of Lee? 

About Mrs. Lee. 

The tomb of Lee. 

Washington and Lee University. 


a it 


Ee 


NTN 
be 
pn 


LEE’S COURT OF ARMS. 


THE LIFE OF GHN. ROBERT E. LHE. 151 


CHAPTER VII. 
A People’s Hero. 


Arter the death of General Lee, many 
speeches were made in his praise, and many 
letters were written telling of the sorrow of his 
friends. These letters came not only from 
the South, but from the North, and other 
lands. 

The New York Swn thus closes its notice: 

“Hisdeath will awaken great grief through 
the South, and many people in the North 
will drop a tear of sorrow on his bier. * * * 
In General Lee, an able soldier, a sincere 
Christian, and an honest man has been taken 
from earth.”’ 

The New York Herald said these kind 
words of him: 

“In a quiet autumn morning, in the land 
he loved so well, and, as he held, he had 
served so faithfully, the spirit of Robert E. 


A 
rs | 
a 
= 
a 
9 
ee 
4 
<q 
: 
| 
o 


THE LIFE OF GEN. ROBERT #. LHE. 153 


Lee left the clay which it had so much 
ennobled, and traveled out of this world . 
into the great and unknown land. * * #* 

“Not to the Southern people alone shall 
be limited the tribute of a tear over the dead 
Virginian. Here in the North, forgetting 
that the time was when the sword of Robert 
HK. Lee was drawn against us, we have long 
since ceased to look upon him as the Con- 
federate leader, but have claimed him as one 
of ourselves; for Robert Edward Lee was an 
American, and the great nation which gave 
him birth would to-day be unworthy of such 
a son if she looked upon him lightly.” 

The Pall Mall Gazette, London, England, 
said : 

“The news from America, that General 
Robert E. Lee is dead, will be received with 
great sorrow by many in this country, as 
well as by his fellow-soldiers in America. 

“Ttis but a few years since Robert EH. Lee 
ranked among the great men of his time. 
He was the able soldier of the Southern 


154 THE LIFE OF GHN. ROBERT #. LHE. 


Confederacy, the leader who twice threatened, 
by the capture of Washington, to turn the 
tide of success and cause a revolution which 
would have changed the destiny of the United 
States.” 

The London Standard gave this tribute to 
Lee: 

‘A country which has given birth to men 
like him, and those who followed him, may 
look the chivalry of Europe in the face with- 
out shame; for the lands of Sidney and of 
Bayard never brought forth a nobler soldier, 
gentleman and Christian, than Robert H. 
Lee.” 

He was called “the great captain of his 
age’’—“‘the great general of the South’”— 
‘‘a good knight, noble of heart and strong of 
purpose, and both a soldier and a gentle- 
man.” 

These beautiful words were said of him in 
a speech soon after his death: 

‘General Lee’s fame is not bounded by 
the limits of the South, nor by the continent. 


THE LIFH OF GEN. ROBERT E. LHE. 155 


_ I rejoice that the South gave him birth. 1! 
rejoice that the South will hold his ashes. 
But his fame belongs to the human race. 
Washington, too, was born in the South and 
‘sleeps in the South, but his fame belongs to 
mankind. We place the name of Lee by 
that of Washington. They both belong to 
the world. 7 

“There is one thing more I wish to say 
before I take my seat. General Lee’s fame 
ought to rest on its true foundation. He did 
not draw his sword in the cause of slavery—he 
did not seek to overthrow the Government 
of the United States. He drew it in the 
defense of constitutional liberty. That cause 
is not dead, but will live forever.”’ 

General W. Preston spoke of him thus: 

“T knew him first when he was a cap- 
tain. * * At that time, General Scott 
had decided upon General Lee as a man who 
would make his mark if he were ever called 
upon to do great work. He never drank, he 
never swore an oath, but there was never a 


156 THH LIFE OF GHN. ROBERT #H. LEE. 


dispute among gentlemen in which his voice 
was not more potent than any other; his rare 
calmness and dignity were above all. When 
the war came on, he followed his native 
State, Virginia. * * Scott maintained 
that Lee was the greatest soldier in the 
Bion, 

‘“‘Tremember when Scott made use of these 
words: ‘I tell you one thing, if I were on my 
death-bed, and knew that a battle was to be 
fought for my country, and the President 
were to say to me, ‘Scott, who shall com- 
mand?’ I tell you that, with my dying 
breath, I would say Robert Lee. Nobody 
but Robert Lee! Robert Lee, and nobody 
but Lee!” 

These extracts would not be complete 
without this one, bearing upon his life as a 
teacher: ; 

“And it is an honor for all the colleges of 
the South, and for all our schools, that this 
pure and bright name is joined by the will 
of him that bore it with the cause of educa- 


THE LIFE OF GEN. ROBERT £. LHE. 157 


tion. We believe that, so long as the name of 
Lee is cherished by Southern teachers, they 
will grow stronger in their work. They will be 
encouraged to greater efforts when they re-_ 
member that Lee was one of their number, 
and that his great heart, that had so bravely 
borne the fortunes of an empire, bore also, 
amid its latest aspirations, the interests and 
hopes of the teacher.” 

A great public honor was paid to our 
hero when the bronze statue by Mercie 
(Mersea) was unveiled in Richmond. 

Shortly after the death of General Lee, a 
few ladies met in a parlor in Richmond and 
formed a society known as the Ladies’ Lee 
Monument Association. Their plan was to 
erect a monument in Richmond to the mem- 
ory of the great chief, and to collect funds 
for this purpose from the entire South. They 
began at once their labor of love. Though 
the South was at that time very poor, the 
people gave gladly of their small means 
until the Ladies’ Association had collected 
over fifteen thousand dollars. 


158 VHEH LIFE OF GHN. ROBERT E. LEE. 


Almost at the same time, another ‘Lee 
Monument Association” was formed of the 
old soldiers and sailors of the Confederacy, 
which had General Jubal A. Karly for its 
president. The ladies of the Hollywood 
Memorial Association were asked to help, 
and they proved great workers in the cause. 

I cannot tell you the many ways in which 
these and other societies worked to raise the — 
money, but at last there was enough in the 
treasury to erect the statue. 

In the meantime, General Fitzhugh Lee 
was made Governor of Virginia, and he at 
once began to take measures to bring about 
the erection of the monument. By his efforts 
a ‘‘ Board of Managers”’ was appointed, whose 
work was to choose the design, the artist, 
and the site for the monument. The Allen 
lot, in the western part of the city, was at 
last chosen for the site, and was accepted as 
the gift of Mr. Otway Allen, June 18th, 1887. 
It was then the duty of the Board to find a 
sculptor worthy to execute this great work. 


THE LIFE OF GHN. ROBERT E. LHE. 159 


After many trials, the Board selected 
Monsieur Mercie, a Frenchman, who was 
both a painter and a sculptor of note. In 
the summer of 1887, the best photographs of 
General Lee, as well as one of his shoes and 
his uniform, were sent to the sculptor. A 
small spur, such as General Lee wore, was 
taken over to France by Miss Randolph, 
who was one of the Board of Managers. 
Monsieur Mercie told her that when General 
Lee’s shoe was sent to him, there was no one 
in his household, except his twelve-year-old 
boy, with a foot small enough to wear it. 

In working out the likeness to General 
Lee, Monsieur Mercic had the good fortune 
to have Miss Mary Lee, who was then in 
Paris, as a critic of his work. 

On the 27th of October, 1887, the corner- 
stone was laid with splendid rites, and on 
the 3rdof May, 1890, the statue reached Rich- 
mond by way of New York. It was packed 
in three boxes. On the 7th of May, each box 
was placed in a separate wagon, from which 


160 THE LIFE OF GHN. ROBERT E#. LEE. 


waved the flags of Virginia and the Con- 
federacy. Then, one wagon was drawn by 
men of the city, one by old soldiers, and one 
by women and girls—the fine lady and her 
humble sister standing shoulder to shoulder. 
They went through the city, pulling the ropes 
amid the cheers of twenty thousand people, 
until they came to the spot where the statue 
was to stand. Such was their love for Lee! 
The monument in all is about sixty-one feet 
in height, and cost sixty-five thousand dol- 
lars. It shows the General mounted upon 
his war-horse, Traveler. His feet touch the 
stirrups lightly, after the manner of the 
Southern horsemen. He is clad in a plain 
uniform. A sash girds his waist, and the 
sword of a cavalry officer hangs from. his 
side. He holds the bridle reins in his left 
hand, while in his right is his hat, which he 
erasps as if he had just taken it off to ac- 
knowledge the cheers of his men, through 
whose ranks we may suppose him to be 
passing. | 


THE LIFE OF GEN. ROBERT #. LEE. 161 


The day decided upon for unveiling the 
statue was Friday, May 29th, 1890. 

From North, South, East and West, 
people thronged to do honor to the great 
chief. 

All the city was then thinking of one 
man—Lee, just as, twenty-five years before, 
all their hopes had turned to him. 

On that day, the sun rose bright and the 
people with it. Soon, the noise of tramping 
feet and the tap of the drum were heard, and 
ere long the glitter of bayonets, the flashing 
of sabers and the waving of flags told that 
the line was forming. The streets were 
crowded, and rang with cheers as some noted 
soldier rode by or an old Confederate flag 
was waved. 

At noon, the long line was formed on 
Broad street, and the parade began. Every 
window, doorway, and even the house-tops 
along the line of march, were filled with 
people eager to see the great parade, which 


162 THE LIFE OF GHN. ROBERT #£. LHE. 


stretched through the streets four miles in 
moving mass. 

General Fitzhugh Lee, nephew of the 
hero, who had been one of his most daring 
cavalry generals during the war, and who 
had formerly been Governor of Virginia, was 
chief marshal of the parade. Cheer after 
cheer arose as he rode by, wearing the 
slouch hat of a cavalryman. ‘Our Fitz,” 
as his men loved to call him, ‘“‘was himself 
again.” 

The guests rode in open carriages, and 
among them were Misses Mary and Mildred 
Lee; and General W. H. Fitzhugh Lee, wife 
and sons. They were followed by band 
after band of volunteer troops from all the 
Southern States, in the following order: 
South Carolina, North Carolina, Mississippi, 
Texas, Maryland, District of Columbia, Ala- 
bama, West Virginia and Virginia. Behind 
these marched the veterans—men who had 
fought in the Civil War, and who came from 
all parts of the South. Brave men were 


THE LIFE OF GEN. ROBERT #. LHE. 163 


there from Texas, the far-off ‘Lone Star 
State.” With the veteran troops from Louis- 
iana was ‘the old war-horse”’ Longstreet, 
who had led the First Corps of the Army of 
Northern Virginia; and at the head of the 
Georgia men was the tried and true Gordon. 
Gallant sons of Florida, Mississippi and 
Alabama were*in line with the brave men 
of North and South Carolina. Veterans 
from Arkansas, Tennessee, Kentucky, Mary- 
land, West Virginia and Virginia were also 
there to honor the memory of their leader. 

Whenever and wherever these veterans 
were seen, they were greeted with hearty 
cheers. Some were clad in their old gray 
uniforms, faded and worn, and in many cases, 
full of bullet-holes. Here and there along 
the line could be seen the old and tattered 
flags of the Confederacy. 

After the veterans, came the civic orders 
in Richmond, the students of Washington 
and Lee University, and the corps of cadets 
from the historic Virginia Military Institute. 


164 THE LIFE OF GEN. ROBERT E. LEE. 


The cross-bars and battle-flags of the Con- 
federacy floated in the breeze by the side of 
the ‘Stars and Stripes,” which meant that 
the people of the United States were one 
nation. 

As the line moved along the streets 
decked with floating flags and gay bunting, 
the sound of the many feet was lost in loud 
and hearty cheers that arose from doors, 
house-tops and crowded sidewalks. 

At last, the throng at the grandstand heard 
the roll of the drum and the nearing din of 
the parade, and soon the bright line swept 
into view. The crowd was so dense that. 
persons on the grandstand could not be seen 
by those on the ground. Ringing cheers 
arose, not once, but time and time again, as 
the great men took their places on the stand, 
and it was as late as 3:45 o’clock P. M. when 
Governor McKinney stepped forward to make 
the opening speech. 

Then there was prayer by Rev. Dr. Min- 
nigerode, who was rector of St. Paul’s 


THE LIFH OF GHN. ROBERT LH. LHE. 165 


church during the war, at which church 
General Lee worshiped when in Rich- 
mond. 

When the prayer ended, the band played 
Dixie, the war-song of the South, with whose 
strains the old soldiers had so. often been 
thrilled as they marched into battle. Then 
there was a great noise which at last wore 
itself away, and General Early rose and 
spoke a few words of cheer to the old sol- 
diers. 

The orator of the day was Colonel 
Archer Anderson, who pictured scene after 
scene in the life of General Lee with great 
force and clearness. Again the grand hero 
seemed to live and act in their midst—to 
lead them on to victory or to teach them 
how to bear defeat. 

When the speaker took his seat, amid 
cheers, General Joseph KE. Johnston arose 
and with two old soldiers marched to the 
base of the monument. Each of the soldiers 
carried a battle flag, tattered and torn by 


166 VHE LIFE OF GHN. ROBERT H. LHH. 


shot and shell. When the monument was 
reached, General Johnston pulled the rope, 
and one part of the veil fell off. Another 
pull brought off the rest of the veil, and the 
splendid statue was in plain view of the 
eager multitude. A score of old soldiers 
mounted its base and waved their old Con- 
federate flags in loyal, eager love for their 
dead chief. Mighty cheers broke from the 
watching throng, like the wild breaking of 
a storm, but at last they died away. 

Up there, against the blue sky, kissed by 
the rays of the setting sun, in the midst of 
his own people, was the matchless face and 
form of Lee. 

Some wept, others shouted, but all thanked 
God that he had given to America such.a 
son as Lee. 

Seldom had men looked on such a scene 
before. At last the crowd went slowly 
away, leaving their hero in bronze to keep 
silent watch over the city he loved so well. 
Beneath him were the homes of his friends, 


THE LIFE OF GEN. ROBERT H. LEE 167 


and beyond, in ‘‘Hollywood” and ‘Oak- 
wood,’’ Richmond’s ‘cities of the dead,” 
were the graves of his fallen heroes, and far 
away, across and a-down the James, were 
his battlefields. 

As time rolls on, statue and city will pass 
away. But the name and virtues of Robert 
EK. Lee will never die, for they are written in 
the history of his country and in the Book 
of Life, and will live beyond the shores of 
Time. 


Monsieur (modsyur’), a French word for Mr. 

Sincéré’, honest. 

Acknowledge (aknol’eg), to own a gift or 
favor. 

Pot’ent, strong, haying power. 

Sid’ney, an English patriot. 

Bayard (ba’yar’), a French hero. 


Pa’triot, one who loves his country. 


168 THE LIFE OF GHN. ROBERT E. LEE. 
Tell about— 


A great honor paid to Lee. 
The laying of the corner-stone. 
The monument. 

The parade. 

The unveiling. 


The undying fame of Lee. 


GENERA RYE EEE’S 
Farewell Address to His Soldiers. 


HeapQquartEerRS ArMy NORTHERN VIRGINIA, 


AproMaTTox C. H., April 10, 1865. 
General Orders No. 9. 


After four years of arduous service, marked by unsurpassed 
courage and fortitude, the Army or NorTHERN VIRGINIA has 
been compelled to yield to overwhelming numbers and resources. 

I need not tell the survivors of so many hard-fought battles, 
who have remained steadfast to the last, that I have consented 
to this result from no distrust of them; but, feeling that valor 
and devotion could accomplish nothing that would compensate 
for the loss that must have attended a continuance of the con- 
test, I determined to avoid the useless sacrifice of those whose 
past services have endeared them to their countrymen. 

By the terms of the Agreement, Officers and men can return 

to their homes and remain until exchanged. You will take with 
you the satisfaction that proceeds from the consciousness of duty 
faithfully performed, and I earnestly pray that a merciful God 
wiil extend to you His blessing and protection. With an unceas- * 
ing admiration of your constancy and devotion to your Country, 
and a grateful remembrance of your kind and generous consider- 


ation for myself, I bid you all an Affectionate Farewell. 


ES chee. 


Lee to the Rear. 


JOHN R. THOMPSON. 


Dawn of a pleasant morning in May 

Broke thro’ the Wilderness, cool and gray, 

While perched in the tallest tree-tops, the birds 
Were carolling Mendelssohn’s ‘Songs without 


words.” 


Far from the haunts of men remote 
The brook brawled on with a liquid note, 
And nature, all tranquil and lovely, wore 


The smile of spring, as in Eden of yore. 


Little by little, as daylight increased, 
And deepened the roseate flush in the East— 
Little by little did morning reveal 


Two long, glittering lines of steel! 


172 SOUTHERN WAR POEMS. 


Where two hundred thousand bayonets gleam, 
Tipped with the light of the earliest beam, 
And the faces are sullen and grim to see 

In the hostile armies of Grant and Lee. 


All of a sudden, ere rose the sun, 
Pealed on the silence the opening gun— 
A little white puff of smoke there came, 


And anon the valley was wreathed in flame. 


Down on the left of the rebel lines, 

Where a breastwork stands in a copse 
pines, 

Before the rebels their ranks can form 

The Yankees have carried the place by storm. 


Stars and Stripes o’er the salient wave, 
Where many a hero has found a grave, 
And the gallant Confederates strive in vain 


of 


The ground they have drenched with their blood 


to regain. 


Yet louder the thunder of battle roared— 
Yet a deadlier fire on their columns poured— 
Slaughter, infernal, rode with Despair, 
Furious twain, through the smoky air. 


SOUTHERN WAR POEMS. 173 


Not far off in the saddle there sat 

A gray-bearded man with black slouch hat ; 
Not much moved by the fire was he— 
Calm and resolute Robert Lee. 


Quick and watchful, he kept his eye 

On two bold rebel brigades close by— 3 

Reserves that were standing (and dying) at 
ease 

Where the tempest of wrath toppled over the 
trees. 


For still with their loud, bull-dog bay 

The Yankee batteries blazed away, 

And with every murderous second that sped 
A dozen brave fellows, alas! fell dead. 


The grand old beard rode to the space 
Where Death and his victims stood face to face, 
And silently waves his old slouch hat— 
A world of meaning there was in that! 


“Follow me! Steady! We'll save the day!” 
This was what he seemed to say ; 

And to the light of his glorious eye 

The bold brigades thus made reply: 


174 SOUTHERN WAR POEMS. 


“We'll go forward, but you must go back.” 

And they moved not an inch in the perilous 
track. 

“Go to the, rear, and we'll give them a rout.” 

Then the sound of the battle was lost in their 
shout. 


Turning his bridle, Robert Lee 

Rode to the rear. Like the waves of the sea 
Bursting the dykes in their overflow, 

Madly his veterans dashed on the foe ; 


And backwood in terror that foe was driven, 
Their banners rent and their columns riven 
Wherever the tide of battle rolled, 

Over the Wilderness, wood, and wold. 


Sunset out of a crimson sky 
Streamed o’er a field of a ruddier dye, 
And the brook ran on with a purple stain 


From the blood of ten thousand foemen slain. 


Seasons have passed since that day and year, 
Again oer the pebbles the brook runs clear, 
And the field in a richer green is drest 
Where the dead of the terrible conflict rest. 


SOUTHERN WAR POEMS. 175 


Hushed is the roll of the rebel drum; 

The sabres are sheathed and the cannon are 
dumb, 

And Fate, with pitiless hand, has furled 

The flag that once challenged the gaze of the 


world. 


But the fame of the Wilderness fight abides, 
And down into the history grandly rides, 
Calm and unmoved, as in battle he sat, 

The gray-bearded man in the black slouch hat. 


The Conquered Banner. 


By the Rev. J. A. Ryan, Catholic Priest, of Knoxville, Tenn. 


Music by A. E. BhackMar. 


Furl that banner, for ’tis weary ; 
Round its staff ‘tis drooping dreary » 
Furl it, fold it, it is best ; 

For there’s not a man to wave it, 

And there’s not a sword to save it, 

And there’s not one left to lave it 

In the blood which heroes gave it; , 

And its foes now scorn and brave it— 
- Furl it, hide it, let it rest. 


176 


SOUTHERN WAR POEMS. 


Take that banner down—'tis tattered, 

Broken is its staff and shattered, 

And the valiant hosts are scattered 
Over whom it floated high. 

Oh! ’tis hard for us to fold it, 

Hard to think there’s none to hold it, 

Hard that those who once enrolled it 


Now must furl it with a sigh. 


Furl that banner, furl it sadly— 
Once ten thousands hailed it gladly, 
And ten thousands wildly, madly, 


Swore it should forever wave, 


Swore that foeman’s sword should never 


Hearts like theirs entwined dissever, 
Till that flag would float forever 
O’er their freedom or their grave. 


Furl it! for the hands that grasped it, 

And the hearts that fondly clasped it, 
Cold and dead are lying low ; 

And the banner, it is trailing, 

While around it sounds the wailing 
Of its people in their woe. 


SOUTHERN WAR POEMS. 177 


For, though conquered, they adore it, 
Love the cold, dead hands that bore it, 
Weep for those who fell before it, 
Pardon those who trailed and tore it, 
And oh! wildly they deplore it, 

Now to furl and fold it so. 


Furl that banner ! true ’tis gory, 
Yet ‘tis wreathed around with glory, 
And ’twill live in song and story, 
Though its folds are in the dust ; 
For its fame on brightest pages, 
Penned by poets and by sages, 
Shall go sounding down the ages, 
Furl its folds though now we must. 


Furl that banner! softly, slowly, 
Treat it gently—it is holy— 
For it droops above the dead ; 
Touch it not, unfold it never ; 
Let it droop there, furled forever, 
For its people’s hopes are dead. 


178 SOUTHERN WAR POEMS. 


Music in Camp. . 


JOHN R. THOMPSON. 


Two armies covered hill and plain, 
Where Rappahannock’s waters 

Ran, deeply crimsoned with the stain 
Of battle’s recent slaughters. 


The summer clouds lay pitched like tents 
In meads of heavenly azure ; 

And each dread gun of the elements 
Slept in its hid embrasure. 


The breeze so softly blew, it made 
No forest leaf to quiver, 

And the smoke of the random cannonade 
Rolled slowly from the river. 


And now, where circling hills looked down, 
With cannon grimly planted, 

O’er listless camp and silent town, 
The golden sunset slanted. 


When on the fervid air there came 
A strain, now rich, now tender; 

The music seemed itself aflame 
With day’s departing splendor. 


SOUTHERN WAR POEMS. 


A Federal band, which eve and morn 
Played measures brave and nimble, 
Had just struck up with flute and horn 

And lively clash of cymbal. 


Down flocked the soldiers to the banks, 
Till margined by its pebbles, 


One wooded shore was blue with ‘‘ Yanks, 


And one was gray with “ Rebels.” 


Then all was still, and then the band, 
With movements light and tricksy, 
Made stream and forest, hill and strand, 


Reverberate with “ Dixie.” 


The conscious stream with burnished glow, 
Went proudly o’er its pebbles, 

But thrilled throughout its deepest flow 
With yelling of the rebels. 


Again a pause, and then again 
The trumpets pealed sonorous, 
And Yankee Doodle was the strain 
To which the shores gave chorus. 


The laughing ripple shoreward flew 
To kiss the shining pebbles ; 

Loud shrieked the swarming boys in blue 
Defiance to the Rebels, 


179 


180 SOUTHERN WAR POEMS. 


And yet once more the bugles sang 
Above the stormy riot ; 
No shout upon the evening rang— 


There reigned a holy quiet. 


The sad, low stream, its noiseless tread 
Poured o’er the glistening pebbles ; 

And silent now the Yankees stood, 
And silent stood the Rebels. 


No unresponsive soul had heard 
That plaintive note’s appealing, 

So deeply Home, Sweet Home, had stirred 
The hidden founts of feeling. 


Or blue or gray, the soldier sees, 
As by the wand of fairy, 

The cottage ’neath the live-oak trees, 
The cabin by the prairie. 


Or cold or warm, his native skies 
Bend in their beauty o’er him ; 

Seen through the tear-mist in his eyes, 
His loved ones stood before him. 


As fades the iris after rain 
In April's tearful weather, 
The vision vanished as the strain 


And daylight died together. 


SOUTHERN WAR POEMS. 181 


But memory, waked by music’s art, 
Expressed in simplest numbers, 
Subdued the sternest Yankee’s heart, 
Made light the Rebel’s slumbers. 


And fair the form of music shines, 
That bright, celestial creature, 
Who still mid war’s embattled lines 
Gave this one touch of nature. 
—Louisville Fournal. 


The South. 


RATHER RYAN. 


Yes, give me the land 

Where the ruins are spread, 
And the living tread light 

On the heart of the dead ; 
Yes, give me the land 

That is blest by the dust, 
And bright with the deeds 

Of the down-trodden just. 


182 


SOUTHERN WAR POEMS. 


Yes, give me the land 

Where the battle’s red blast 
Has flashed on the future 

The form of the past ; 
Yes, give me the land 

That hath legends and lays 
That tell of the memories 

Of long-vanished days. 


Yes, giveme the land 

That hath story and song 
To tell of the strife 

Of the right with the wrong ; 
Yes, give me the land 

With a grave in each spot 
And names in the graves 

That shall not be forgot. 


Yes, give me the land 
Of the wreck and the tomb; 
There’s grandeur in graves— 
There’s glory in gloom. 
For out of the gloom 
Future brightness is born ; 
As, after the night, 


I _ooms the sunrise of morn. 


SOUTHHRN WAR POEMS. 


And the graves of the dead, 
With the grass overgrown, 
May yet form the footstool 
Of Liberty’s throne ; 
And each simple wreck 
In the way-path of might 
Shall yet be a rock 
In the temple of Right. 


183 


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